Games Beaten - May 2022

I'm surprised no one has posted the usual monthly thread for this yet, but I thought I would do the honors this time around and post it!

My month in gaming was pretty okay and at least I got to play something amazing this month:

Turbo Overkill -Early Access- (PC, 05/05, 6/10)
Prey -2006- (Xbox One Backwards Compatibility, 05/25, 9/10)

The month started out disappointing with the EA Release of Turbo Overkill which I was hugely excited for after the demo came out. However, despite the excellent weapon management, amazing controls and movement, solid gunplay and an excellent final boss, the game attempts to copy Doom Eternal's hardcore difficulty without knowing what made that game's difficulty tolerable. Even on Easy it can get really infuriating at points and the checkpoints sometimes are extremely unfairly placed and it doesn't help that the level design is super inconsistent and the story is abysmal for Boomer Shooter standards. Oh, and I ended up getting a bug that took away one of my major powerups I was supposed to get after I got it in the level I got it in. So hopefully because it's in Early Access the devs can polish the game more and make it more tolerable to finish.

Finally, I ended up finishing 2006's Prey. Despite the protagonist being one of the most selfish and unlikeable and inconsistently written characters in FPS History, this was excellent. I loved pretty much everything about it. The guns felt wholly original and unique, the gameplay in general is excellent boosted by outstanding graphics and scope and the technology behind it is groundbreaking for the time. Also has excellent early uses of licensed music and was a very lengthy game at around 6-7 Hours (When talking about FPS Games) plus the weapon management is some of the best. Even though there were graphical and programming bugs I encountered they were very minor. The game in general is amazing and it's one of only two games that made me cry besides Halo 3. It was such a satisfying and groundbreaking experience I knew I would never play something like this again in my lifetime and I wept tears of joy. You got to play this if you haven't.

This month I'm focusing on System Shock 2 which I'm really having a great time playing all things considered. The slow pace is refreshing and the game is genuinely terrifying; more so than Bioshock. I'm also attempting to get through more of Fire Emblem Warriors but the horrific writing and characterization is what's keeping me from playing it as it's so generic and cliched and follows many of the tropes these Warriors games face when focusing on franchises (Generic one note characters from different games coming together to fight off one big evil) but the gameplay is solid all things considered like with all Warriors games so hopefully it will keep me going.

Was just about to make a post for this same topic. Had yet another massively productive month and finally got around to playing some games I've been meaning to for a while.

05/02-Sonic Adventure (7/10)
05/03-Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (7/10)
05/04-Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown (7/10)
05/04-Dishonored (9/10)
05/04-Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall (7/10)
05/05-Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches (6/10)
05/05-Kirby Super Star (9/10)
05/06-Mega Man 10 (6/10)
05/08-Metroid Fusion (8/10)
05/16-Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (6/10)
05/19-Guacamelee! 2 (7/10)
05/22-New Super Mario Bros. Wii (7/10)
05/25-Vectorman (6/10)
05/25-Mega Man IV (Game Boy) (8/10)
05/25-MadWorld (8/10)
05/30-Mega Man 11 (8/10)
05/31-The Red Strings Club (6/10)

Most Favorite: This one goes to Dishonored. The superb level design paired with the extremely fun and open-ended gameplay makes this one of the best games I've played in recent memory. Seriously not enough people talk about it, go check it out.

Least Favorite: While nothing I played this month was bad The Red Strings Club was probably my least favorite of the bunch. The writing in this game is incredibly inconsistent and the fact that it only had one writer shows in the unchecked biases left in the games dialogue and questions. The game was usually fine in spite of this but it permeates into the entirety of the game's core.

Personal Recommendation: MadWorld is an astonishingly underrated gem from the Wii's lifetime. As Platinum Games' first venture, they went all out and used the Wii's hardware to the fullest. It's a nice and short action-packed game that rarely gets dull. It doesn't deserve the 71% it has on this website that's for sure.

Retired Games Log:
Dishonored: Dunwall City Trials - Not wasting several hours of my life on a challenge mode that feels like a minigame compilation.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - Not the worst game I've played but one filled to the brim with backtracking to the point of overbearing monotony.

Dead Rising - I respect it for what it was but the bullshit design choices and clunky controls makes it hard to stick with this one.

Wrapped up my first year of college earlier this month, and since I had some time to spare before I began working for the summer, I went on a gaming binge and played through and finished quite a few games

5/11 Megaman 2
5/11 Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition
5/11 Heretic - Shadow of the Serpent Riders
5/12 Bugsnax: The Isle of Bigsnax
5/20 Postal
5/21 Ghostwire Tokyo
5/23 Silent Hill
5/23 Portal
5/31 Silent Hill 2

My favorite game of the batch was Silent Hill 2, which after wrapping it up has jumped up to being one of my new favorites of all time. This is a seriously good game that has aged extremely well and remains one of the scariest games out there for all the right reasons. My least favorite game was Postal, mostly due to the overly edgy nature that came off as disturbed, and after some recent incidents across America has really soured my opinion on this game. I began and played through this game at probably one of the worst possible times and that really soured the game for me. Also the game is pretty bad overall and almost not worth being played, though its free on steam.

The only game i completed is a replay:

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

For the rest i'm currently playing:

State of decay
Dragon Age Ultimate Edition

Tangle Tower (PC, Steam): 5:55, May 04 - 06
Pokémon Snap 64 (emulated): May 09 – 14
FAR: Changing Tides (Switch): 6:27, May 07 - 30

Only the three for me and Pokemon Snap 64 was an unplanned replay, but a fun revisit. And I also had a good time with Tangle Tower and FAR: Changing Tides.

completed
----------------
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)
Elden Ring (2022)

extras
---------------
Minerva Metastasis [HL2ep1 MOD] (2007)
Entropy Zero [HL2ep2 MOD] (2017)
The Trap 2: Mindlock [HL2ep2 MOD] (2017)
Field Intensity [HL MOD] (2022)
Echoes [HL MOD] (2018)

Elden Ring is the new longest game me have ever finished being at 120 hours (previous was Cyberpunk 2077 at 55).
Want to recommend Field Intensity mod cause such well made creations always need more attention. Feels like proper expansion.

Not a lot of games but kind of a solid list

May 4 - Pokemon Y - 7/10
May 10 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 8/10
May 15 - Wordle - 7/10 (I did 100 days of Wordle and I consider that completed imo)
May 16 - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - 9/10
May 31 Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - 8/10

Best I played would be Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Worst is... I guess Wordle? It's not a bad game though.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Xbox Series X/S) - May 04, 2022 - We Got This... Probably (Normal) difficulty. Got all of the Special Abilities for all Guardians. Got all of the Perks. Collected some but not all of the Collectibles (Outfits, Guardian Collectibles, Items and Archives). Didn't pay the fine.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was such a good time. Excellent characters and writing full of really great jokes, great soundtrack, beautiful graphics, and fun gameplay.
Highly recommend it!

Happy gaming for June!

This month I've been playing to many different games, and I came back to pokémon nuzlockes:

- Escape from Monkey Island - PC - 14/05 - 9:42 h
- Pokémon Crystal - 3DS - 20/05 - 38:34 h
- Bakugan Battle Brawlers - NDS - 21/05 - 25:44 h [Replay] - 100%
- Papers, Please - PC - 22/05 - 9:30 h [Replay] - 100% on Steam
- Pokémon Fire Red Starterlocke - Emulated (GBA) - 26/05 - 12:10 h with boost.

My favourite one has been Bakugan Battle Brawlers because of its gameplay. I enjoyed a lot unlocking and updating my Bakugans, while I tried to have monotypes teams.

The most disappointing one has been Scape from Monkey Island. The truth is that I actually enjoyed it, but it the worst of all Monkey Island games I've finished.

I've also started Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2 (5 h - Emulated (NDS) [Replay]) and Pokémon Sapphire Hardlocke (9:50 h - Emulated (GBA)), while I came back to Skyrim: Anniversary Edition (123:36 h - PC).

I finished 4 games in May:

The Secret of Monkey Island [PC] 5h 28m (9/10) - May 5
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice [Xbox X] 8h 04m (7/10) - May 9
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 [PS4] 38h 57m (7/10) - May 15
Mass Effect [Xbox X] 24h 08m (7/10) - May 26

I didn't retire any games. It's really difficult to choose my least favourite game, because everything I played was quite average. I think the one I had the least fun playing through was surprisingly The Secret of Monkey Island. I didn't remember this game from playing it in the past, and I needed to consult a guide quite often to get through it which made it a bit of a slog.

My favourite game of the month is also difficult to pick, but against all odds I would choose NieR Replicant. There's something about the story in Yoko Taro's games that really works for me and that touch me. The low rating is mainly due to the gameplay and fetch quests, but the story is what still lingers in my mind.

I only finished one game in May, mainly because I was pretty busy with work and uni that month. I also kinda had a gaming ‚burnout‘ and couldn‘t get myself to play games for a while.

05 / 17 — Bayonetta 2 — Nintendo Switch — 13h 24min
After beating Bayonetta back in March, it was time to finish the sequel, too. And boy, I loved this one even more than the first title. First of all, I really liked the graphics of Bayonetta 2. The vibrant blue colours clashed a lot with the grayish–red tones of the first entry in the series and gave it a new, fresh and exciting feeling. The level design was just as neat as in Bayonetta. I love how many rewards you can find once you start exploring each level (mainly talking about the shrines, but also a lot of the ingredients you can make lollipops from). The portals you can find in each level are way easier than the ones in the first title, but they still offer quite the challenge and are actually a lot of fun once you get the hang of combos and such. I finished the game on normal, but compared to the normal mode in Bayonetta, this one seemed to be less harsh on the player. In comparison to Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2 had a way more complex story and introduced a few new characters but also brought others back. Before finishing the main story, I thought about what could potentially happen at the end of this game, but it turned out to be something completely different. Really excited how this journey will continue in Bayonetta 3! I‘m giving Bayonetta 2 a solid 10/10, mainly because I really enjoy the combo system and the humour (bonus points for (kinda) bringing the space harrier level back, but this time, they made it so much better!).

My pattern of actually completing games every other month continues with 2 completions this month. Hopefully I break the pattern with some completions next month too.

5/10 - Franken (PC) - 1h 18m
5/25 - Pokémon Red (3DS) - 30h 39m

A fairly productive month

01 - Borderlands 3: Guns, Love & Tentacles dlc
08 - Sonic Advance 3
11 - The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
19 - Halo: Combat Evolved - Anniversary
23 - Titanfall 2
24 - Quantum Conundrum: The Desmond Debacle dlc
25 - Quantum Conundrum: IKE-ARAMBA! dlc
26 - Chime Sharp
28 - It Takes Two
30 - Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood dlc
30 - Thomas Was Alone

The Best - It's a split between "It Takes Two" and "Titanfall 2". It Takes Two is a great coop game, has tons of variety and is such a step up in quality from "A Way Out". Titanfall 2 is such a slick and well executed FPS, also has tons of variety and is just so well based that it'll leave you wanting more. I think Titanfall 2 beats out It Takes Two just slightly based on subjective taste and being a bit more "focused" but both were the highlights of the month.

The Worst - Chime Sharp. The original Chime was a great little music game with a simple premise, arrange blocks into squares, cover as much of the game board as possible and as you do so the various layers of a music track have their volumes increased until you're listening to the full force of whatever incredible track they had chosen. Chime Sharp either forgets that or its so minimal it's barely noticeable. Gameplay is ruined by a bunch of bright contrasting colour choices that make it painful to just parse the screen efficiently, and to make it all worse, most of the music choices are underwhelming. Really disappointing follow up game.

The Rest - The Borderlands 3 dlc were fun enough, Guns, Love & Tentacles appealed to me more than Bounty of Blood.

Sonic Advance 3 is interesting but I found it to be a lot more frustrating and tedious to play compared to Advance 2.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe was a contender for best game some of the new stuff, little changes to the pre-existing stuff, it remains as one of the best examples of narrative and story play in video games and how to best utilize the medium. It just loses out to the more mechanically satisfying games of Titanfall 2 and It Takes Two.

Halo was a replay but on Solo Legendary and it was honestly a terrible experience, just an exercise in pure tedium.

The Quantum Conundrum dlc was mostly fine, a bit lacklustre compared to the main game but solid nonetheless.

And finally Thomas Was Alone, very amusing and fairly satisfying, but at the same time it's almost too basic, so many "puzzles" are no-brainers that it feels like it's a trick, like the game wants you to believe it's more cerebral than it really is, so at times it can feel like pointless busywork. Plus it compares unfavourably to The Stanley Parable, especially Ultra Deluxe, on narrative focused video game terms.

Two completions for me in May.

Nostalgia (DS)
Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)

Both were actually really good. Nostalgia is a nice and simple JRPG which gave me a lot of FF4 vibes in its simplicity. It was developped by the same team who did the DS ports for FF3 and FF4 so that might explain it. I highly recommend it if you're into classic, simple and easy JRPGs. It has a decent length (30-32 hours) and has some interesting mecanics to it.

Kirby was also a lot of fun. I played the DS remake/upgrade of the SNES game. It has good visuals, fun music, interesting gameplay. I also loved the fact that the game is actually a collection of like 7 smaller games, each one of them has its own style and challenges. It's also one of the longest Kirby games I've played at eight hours. All of it was really fun.

This is my 2022 completions so far. Lots of different genres and styles. So far I've had a very good gaming year overall.

Q.U.B.E
Figment
The First Tree
Assassin's Creed III
Yoshi's Cookie
Donkey Kong '94
One Guy Gun
Nostalgia
Kirby Super Star Ultra

I've slowed down a little compared to the last few months, but I think there's still a good mix of varied games in here and I liked most of what I played. I should probably get back to chipping at bigger home console games soon, though.

Mouse Corp: Not much to say on this one, the aesthetic it's going for would probably work better if everything didn't have a checkerboard pattern and the camera snags itself constantly, which works together with the overall sameness of the game overworld to make it very difficult to figure out where you've been or where you're going. 5/10
Rip Van Bubsy: A ten minute black comedy adventure game by thecatamites starring everyone's favourite punching bag/mascot. Plays with technique in interesting ways and features a very unique low-fi art style built on stop motion and napkin scribbles. 6.5/10
Deltarune: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2: I had played the first chapter when it originally came out but decided to brush up on it again to prep for the new one. As someone who wasn't particularly fond of Undertale, this game feels much better put together and excites me a lot more. It's built on the same mechanical foundation as the former game and appears to be grasping at similar ideas, but the additional mechanics both in the battle screens and the overworld, and especially the addition of a full adventuring party and the group dynamics that entails give the formula a massive shot in the arm, and the overall production quality thus far makes Undertale look positively anaemic by comparison. However, it seems that it's not even close to being a finished product, and future chapters of Deltarune could easily fail to stick the landing in a number of ways, so I don't feel comfortable giving it a score out of ten. Rating pending.
The Outfoxies: An excellent weapons-based platform fighter with a fantastic set of stages that change dynamically throughout the match and a quirky cast of fighters including a chimp in a suit jacket and a pair of twins who use each other as battering rams. Presentation is great and it has maybe the best final boss encounter of any fighting game I've ever played, although since the stages are so large, the screen can zoom out so far that it becomes almost impossible to see what anyone is doing at times. 8/10
Arm Joe: A freeware fighting game based on Les Misérables. Despite it's source material, it's very weirdly fast pace and full of really powerful moves, everyone has at least one move that forces a wall bounce and most of the cast dashes fast enough to follow up with a juggle, and you can very easily TOD airborne opponents with your jab on most characters. The boss character, Judgement, is perhaps the most broken character I've ever seen in a fighting game, with full screen slides, divekicks, an instant dash and the ability to counterattack out of his hitstun. It's not the worst fighting game I've ever played but the novelty wears off after a few rounds of it. 4/10
OFF: Perfunctory turn-based RPG, elevated by strong aesthetic/tone and interesting narrative ideas, chiefly focused around player perspective. A very bleak game, but not one that likes to rub your face in it. Very strong soundtrack, much more atmospheric than is usual for an RPG of this style. 7/10
LISA: The Painful: You can tell it's an RPGMaker game at times, but the unique approach to overworld exploration and crushingly oppressive tone helps elevate it above most of its contemporaries. It's also one of the few turn based RPGs I've played where items feel useful, and the fact they're in such short supply for most of the game makes battles feel a little more thoughtful than in most games. 8/10
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll: Isometric 2-player platformer. Controls aren't very good and levels are mostly distinguished by how the main points-scoring enemy works. This game stands out most for its soundtrack, which is a collection of high energy 12 bar blues/rock 'n' roll inspired chiptune via David Wise. 5/10
Shaman King: Master of Spirits 2: Plays like a slightly more linear spin on the GBA Castlevania games, even has a limited equivalent to Aria of Sorrow's soul system. Mostly well paced and overall superior to most of the GBA CV games but the final stretch of levels drags on for way too long. 7/10
A Dance of Fire and Ice: Simple looking rhythm game designed to be played with only one button. Despite initial appearances, the game becomes quite intricate and difficult rather fast, and the way it visualizes its music as a winding maze of tiles is very unique and often pretty to look at. Moreover, the game's soundtrack is both great and very eclectic, and doesn't shy away from offbeat rhythms or other techniques that'd make for interesting play in a rhythm game of this nature. On top of the twenty-odd levels the game comes with by default, there's also a custom stage editor, so even with the game's short length there's a lot of great content on offer. 9/10
Blood of the Killer: The first OTK title to offer a functional mystery plot, the game also sports a number of creative, interesting art and visual design set pieces. Extremely solid mini-offering I would happily recommend to fans of mystery fiction or gonzo freeware games. 8/10
Joe and Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics: Outside of having a 2p mode this is essentially a shorter, lesser version of Prehistorik Man on the same system, though it's still reasonably enjoyable outside some of the jumps you have to make on the Volcano stage. 6/10
Soul Blazer: Similar to Actraiser, Quintet's previous game, but instead of side scrolling action stages you have a top down Zelda-style dungeon crawl. Being able to see yourself incrementally restore parts of the towns you visit helps you feel like you're always making progress no matter what, and there's decent incentives to explore and return to old areas, but overall the game is very backtrack heavy, and feels much less exciting than the previous title (it doesn't help that the bosses are really bad, too). 6.5/10

Only one game in the retiree corner this month:

Ghoul Patrol: In almost every aspect, this game is a worse version of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and has little content to make it worth recommending even for those who enjoyed that game. Weapons are generally much less interesting and varied (mostly varieties of laser guns with similar functions as each other) and difficulty only really comes in the form of small corridors packed with insane numbers of respawning enemies, and the game's extremely shoddy collision detection makes it hard to get away or even to utilize certain power ups. 4/10

Just two for me this month. I retired Battletech after about 10 hours and completed Amnesia: Rebirth. I didn't care for either of them, unfortunately. Battletech was slow and tedious and I couldn't see myself trudging through the 50-hour campaign. Amnesia was similarly dull for most of the time, though I did appreciate the novel experience of playing as a pregnant woman. This is all I've played in the past 2.5 months :-(

Another month bites the dust, and I have another pair of completions.

05/08 Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok (PS5) • 22:21 ⭐⭐
05/30 Chrono Cross (PS4) • 46:42 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Dawn of Ragnarok didn't really impress me. It was literally more of the same Valhalla, except it inexplicably featured one of the most boring, lifeless takes on Norse mythology I've ever seen. And featured lots of slow-moving dwarves.

This means Chrono Cross is the big winner in May. I played the Radical Dreamers' edition for PS4. While it's a cheap, barebones port with approximately zero effort put into it, Chrono Cross itself remains excellent and is still one of my favorite games even after all these years. The combat is solid, the music is absolutely superb, and while the story gets a little convoluted, a lot of the smaller moments resonate. The graphics are rather ugly; SquareEnix did a horrific job with the up-rez (and in some instances, such as the FMVs, couldn't be bothered to touch them at all), but the original art direction is still very strong.

Well, this month wasn't too productive completions-wise for me...

- Timberborn (early access) [PC]

And that's it! Hopefully June will be a better month!

I feel like I had a really busy month!

Fallen Order definitely takes the cake for highlight of the month, beat it just in time to be hyped for the sequel trailer!!

VVVVVV
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
We Were Here
The Timeless Child - Prologue
Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Remastered
Inscryption
Her Story
The Outer Worlds

I finally beat Pokemon Arceus and Elden Ring, lots of hours spent on those

So I finished only one thing in May because it was a long one.

Rune Factory 4 Special - It was my first of this kind of farming/life-sim game, and I can definitely see the appeal. The core gameplay is pretty addicting with a plethora of options for you to do. It gets a bit grindy by the end and rellies a bit much on Rng in places but it's a really fun game.

Two games this time for me (after basically two months of no new game finishes):

5th May 2022- Hollow Knight - 47h 3m 12s
7th May 2022 - Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - 7h 44m 44s

Ranking:
2nd:Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Great story exploring mental health issues but the combat is weak and and at times It feels more like a walking sim then an action game
1st: Hollow Knight - An excellent well made Metroidvania with Dark souls levels of difficulty although the save points can be rather sporadic in the game

Only finished one main game and a bunch of its DLC, and one DLC from the next game

Mass Effect 2 Overlord (PS5)- May 19
Mass Effect 2 Arrival (PS5)- May 19
Mass Effect 2 (PS5)- May 19
Mass Effect 3 From Ashes (PS5)- May 21

All of these were played on LE, one of my goals for June is to beat ME3 LE.

Games Beaten - May 2022

Took on The Witcher 2 this month, which meant only two games were completed:

13-May-2022 - A Dance of Fire and Ice (PC) – 6H45M
20-May-2022 - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (PC) - 34H25M

With a limited playing time, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was a huge undertaking. Yet the story is so well told, and the characters so vivid and intriguing - that it didn't feel that long. A superb RPG that is dogged down by an awkward control scheme and jerky melee. It is my game of the month, and I gave it an excellent rating - but it could have gone higher with a bit of care.

A Dance of Fire and Ice was an fantastic rhythm game. I'm horrible at rhythm games but I enjoyed this one a lot - and after surprisingly finishing the 6 worlds that represent the core game, I still play it a few minutes every day to get into the groove.

My Game Size Guide:
Tiny (0-2 hours), Small (2-6 hours), Medium (6-14 hours), Large (14-30 hours), Huge (30-62), Epic (62+)