Author Topic: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame  (Read 39666 times)

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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Edit: Wow, I totally forgot this thread was here. I have been slowly working through it this whole time and have cleared a good amount of the old list, but now that the summer has begun, I thought I'd start back up with the regular updates. Suffice to say, I'm not making this easy for myself. Anyway, I'm going to refresh this list and then have a good crack at it. (12/06/2012)

Much to my chagrin, I have built up quite a backlog. A lot of them are at varying degrees of completion, and (sadly) there are even a few that I haven't started yet. It's been bugging me for a long time, all the way back to the Gamecube era when this started being a problem, but evidently, the rate at which I buy has been greater than the rate at which I finish. Not any more. This summer, the backlog is going down.

The following is a list of the games in question. The plan is to use this thread as a dumping ground for my thoughts on each game as I move through them. Bear in mind that the list is likely to get intermittently shorter and longer as I potentially buy more games. Anyway, here goes. Wish me luck, and feel free to throw in your own comments.

Key
Green = Completed
Orange = Work in progress
Red = Not started
Line = Not completed, but for all intents and purposes, I am done with it

The List of Doom
Advance Wars: Dark Conflict
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Bastion
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise
Bioshock
Botanicula
Company of Heroes (plus expansion packs Tales of Valour and Opposing Fronts)
Cthullu Saves the World
Dead Space
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
From Dust
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Half-Life 2 (plus expansion packs Episode One and Episode Two)
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Kirby Mass Attack
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
Limbo
NBA Jam
NightSky
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Psychonauts
Pullblox
Quantum Conundrum
Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure
Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
Second Sight
Shinobi [3DS]
Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Tales of Monkey Island
(Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
Terraria
The Binding of Isaac
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition
Toki Tori
Trauma Centre: New Blood
« Last Edit: August 09, 2012, 11:29:35 AM by Killer_Man_Jaro »
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2011, 01:26:25 PM »
VVVVVV

The game that receives the honour of being the first to jump off the pile is this neat little indie game. The concept is incredibly simple: move left, move right, press button to switch gravity. Everything you need for a super challenging retro-style 2D platformer. VVVVVV remains fresh and interesting as you move from area to area, and although the PC arrow key control sometimes feels too slippery for purpose, the fact that respawn after death occurs in half a second makes the trial-and-error nature less painless.

By the way. Soundtrack. Is. Awesome. Go download it.

Other than the often insidious difficulty, which I'm not going to hold against it, I have one minor gripe. The game is structured as a non-linear open world, with obstacle course levels spread across it. While I'm not necessarily opposed to this, there are a few too many useless screens, either with blank space or platforms that serve no purpose. Considering that it moves screen by screen, this can be quite disorientating.

That said, with the current asking price for this title being very reasonable, you can't go wrong with VVVVVV.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2011, 01:28:30 PM by Killer_Man_Jaro »
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2011, 01:31:53 PM »
Half Life 2... The game isn't bad your just going to have to grin and bear the vehicle levels which it has way to many of and I'll tell you now the last level is a I've been working to this.. type of deal.  After your done their...
Play Portal 2 and go hey this is a much better game.
LoZ: LA DX is a good game but it will have you scratching your head with some of the choices they made and how it could have been done much more elegantly.
Battalion Wars 2 is fun.
KotOR I have never finished myself.  Its like all the Bioware style RPGs its good to a point and then I'm just tired of it.
Can't really say much on the rest of that list.
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Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2011, 01:32:38 PM »
Can we suggest which game you go after next or are you just going to do that yourself?
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2011, 01:49:55 PM »
Can we suggest which game you go after next or are you just going to do that yourself?

Well, I was just going to tackle the list randomly, but sure, if you've got suggestions, go ahead. At the minute, I've got Batman: Arkham Asylum installing on my computer at snail's pace.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2011, 02:04:48 PM »
I played the demo of that it looks fantastic.
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Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2011, 02:09:27 PM »
I'd personally would go after the shorter games first Killer_Man_Jaro.So things like the downloadable games first and then later get into the bigger console or PCs games last. And yet it moves and Braid I'd start after you are done with Batman: Arkham Asylum.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2011, 02:19:30 PM »
Personally I mix them up but, I also have a portable and non-portable going at the same time.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2011, 05:35:29 PM »
Only 36 games in your backlog? Pfft...amateur.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2011, 05:54:44 PM »
Only 36 games in your backlog? Pfft...amateur.

Is that right? To be honest, if the log had much more than that, I don't think I could even entertain the possibility that I'd ever clear it. But then you might argue that it's good to have a little bit of a backlog, as back-up for when there's not much coming out.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2011, 03:17:11 PM »
Pikmin 2

Status update: The primary goal of wiping the 10,000 Poko debt has been met, but there's still a lot of game left. Now into the final area, Wistful Wild, which is a somewhat unsettling place to be.

As for my thoughts, all I'll say now is that it makes some neat little additions to the template established by the first Pikmin. One might argue that the ability to multi-task better with Olimar and Louie is ironically less important now that the day limit is gone, but my moderate OCD demands efficient and productive days, so this is a godsend. The underground caves are starting to become even more prevalent, though - we'll see how that goes. My opinion of the caves varies on a case-by-case basis.
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Offline BeautifulShy

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2011, 03:29:28 PM »
Do you think that the Purple Pikmin are over powered in the game? I think most people tend to use the Red Pikmin less since Purple Pikmin tend to overshadow them in power.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2011, 03:37:53 PM »
Not overpowered per se. The Purples certainly do more damage than the Reds, but their plodding run speed and short range mean that they're best for up close and personal assaults. If you need to stay on the move while attacking, as is the case with some of the boss creatures, Reds tend to handle it more successfully, as they can keep up with Olimar and can be thrown from further afar.
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Offline UltimatePartyBear

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #13 on: June 22, 2011, 09:55:03 PM »
I'm terrified to even attempt to count the games in my backlog, but I wish you luck on your endeavor.

I occasionally load up VVVVVV just to play time trials and hear the music again.  I even got a couple of V rankings, too, but I don't expect to beat any more challenges.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #14 on: June 25, 2011, 08:07:18 AM »
Battalion Wars 2

Funny that I would also be playing this game at the same time as Pikmin 2, because although I don't recall the comparison being made at the time, the two share a few common threads - certainly, BWII is closer to Pikmin than other real-time strategy titles. Obviously, the key difference is that, as well as issuing commands, the character under your control is also very much involved in the combat, at which point it is more like a third-person shooter. Handily, there is a lock-on ability, but rather than locking your fire onto the enemy, it just centres the view on said enemy and allows free aiming with the cursor, which can be extremely useful.

However, whereas with Pikmin 2 I was able to assimilate myself back into it despite the lengthy hiatus, I'm having more trouble adapting to BWII. To dole out orders, you must cycle through squadrons of units on the bar at the bottom of the screen and then select what you want them to do. The army can be commanded at any level, ranging from macro to micro. Managing all of this while running around and shooting, though, is an often overwhelming mental exercise; maybe I ought to replay the tutorial missions before I carry on.
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Offline Ymeegod

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #15 on: June 27, 2011, 01:12:58 AM »
Damn you have AAA titles in your backlog.  Screw those indie games and get on top of these ones first:
HL2, Portal 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bioshock, and Dead Space.  Hell that's roughly 50-60 hours worth of gaming which if you play 4 hours/day will last a couple of weeks.


Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #16 on: June 27, 2011, 04:37:19 AM »
I'll get onto them. Right now, I'm knee-deep in the final caves of Pikmin 2. Once that's done, Portal 2 takes priority because I am near the end on that one. Next up, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Bioshock, which are suddenly more relevant again, what with the sequels to both coming soon.

However, I'm afraid to announce that the backlog has increased. Due to my inability to resist good deals, even when it's not practical, I ordered three DS titles online - Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem, Advance Wars: Dark Conflict and Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. Then, after listening to the newest RFN episode, I downloaded Donkey Kong '94. What kind of moron acquires 4 games in 1 day?
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #17 on: June 27, 2011, 04:48:08 AM »
Good call. Pikmin 2 is much more important than anything else on that list. And after that I strongly recommend Donkey Kong '94. I'm currently playing it for the first time thanks to the 3DS VC, and it's one of the best games I've ever played.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #18 on: June 30, 2011, 08:18:55 AM »
Pikmin 2

The beast is done! I'd estimate at least 30 hours in total from start to finish - a significant increase over its predecessor, which could probably just about reach the 10 hour mark.

Firstly, to clarify, this was the New Play Control version of the game. The controls translate very well to the Wii Remote & Nunchuck, and is very comfortable to use. It didn't occur to me originally, but having both movement and cursor control on one analog stick on the Gamecube was quite finicky, especially in instances where you need to throw a Pikmin onto a precise spot. The pointer adds a handful of little conveniences, even for things like being able to recall idle Pikmin from really far away. Shame that this edition will apparently never make it to America, for whatever reason.

To elaborate on my earlier thoughts, Pikmin 2 is progressive is nearly all the right ways. The new Pikmin types, Purple and White, are balanced and well worth taking advantage of, as are the Ultra-Spicy and Ultra-Bitter sprays, although the unconventional method of producing the new Pikmin and sprays can sometimes be a nuisance. Environmental puzzles continue to be the star of the show, with cool new elements like using Pikmin as weights to elevate and lower platforms.

I think the Pikmin games really nail it with their atmosphere. It might seem like a weird term when talking about something this whimsical and quirky, but the miniaturised perspective is so cohesive that you really do feel like an insignificant speck in this world, fighting against all odds. Adding to that, enemy encounters are almost always tense. While on that topic, Pikmin 2 expands a lot on the roster of enemies, which is really fleshed out in the superbly localised Piklopedia. When you complete the game, you unlock all these entries in the Piklopedia where Louie talks about how to best prepare each creature as a meal. Totally pointless stuff, but very amusing to read nonetheless.

Before I wrap up, the Marmite aspect of this game must be addressed. What do I think of the underground caves? To be honest, I have no general opinion of them - as I said in my previous post, they vary in quality. Some are fun to explore, particularly one that has the aesthetic of a toy box. For the most part, I like hunting the treasures (again, this is enhanced by the Treasure Hoard encyclopaedia). Unfortunately, there are a few that suddenly smack you in the face and remind you that these levels are being randomly generated because the arrangement of certain floors just doesn't make sense. They also occasionally go on for too long, the last caves being the prime offenders.

In conclusion, now that I've finally gotten through this, I'm more sure than ever that the debate over which is the better Pikmin game is an unnecessary argument. They deserve to stand side by side and be appreciated for their differences.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #19 on: June 30, 2011, 10:38:19 AM »
Grats. 34 more to go.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #20 on: June 30, 2011, 04:08:14 PM »
Bit.Trip FLUX

Of every game in my backlog, this may be the one that gets crossed off the list without me actually completing it. The final stage is so, so, so bloody difficult, perhaps it is beyond my abilities. I'll probably go back to the game some time down the road - it could work out like BEAT, which I eventually finished a year and a half after I first obtained it.

FLUX is pretty fun, but it doesn't have the originality of the others. RUNNER and VOID are still my favourites in the series. The fact that they are the easiest (though by no means easy) likely has something to do with that, but I also just really love how those two play.
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Offline Oblivion

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #21 on: June 30, 2011, 04:47:56 PM »
Whhhaaat? Flux is BY FAR the easiest. In fact, I beat it the same day I bought it. Void is the only other one I ever beat, and it took me a year to do that.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #22 on: June 30, 2011, 05:10:56 PM »
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. The thing about BEAT and FLUX is that, in the final level of both, the beats start flying in erratic ways, and because the beats mostly look the same, it's almost impossible to anticipate how they will move, even after you've blocked them. For example, I'm returning a wave of beats, then at some point during that wave, the beats start bouncing repeatedly against the paddle. All the other beats flew back where they came from when I blocked them, but these ones, which look identical, did not, and it completely catches me off guard.

Essentially, I feel like the rules in RUNNER and VOID are more consistent, so I am able to react better to the patterns thrown at me.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #23 on: June 30, 2011, 06:20:12 PM »
Nice idea, I may have to join in on this one as we share a lot of the same unfinished games.

For some reason I didn't play very far into Battalion Wars II despite how much I enjoyed the previous title. I might have bought another game at the time which distracted me from it. In any case, if you ever would like to try out the online co-op mode, then feel free to shoot me a message. From what I can tell the game is region-free, but there's only one way to find out. There are only four missions, but you're still given a grade like in the campaign and achieving an S rank is no easy task. I haven't gotten a one, though I've played for only a few hours.

Offline oohhboy

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #24 on: July 01, 2011, 05:47:04 AM »
L4D2's "Meat" is in the multiplayer (with mics) especially in verses. However you are more than likely get a subpar experience if you only play with pubs. It's almost like hazing period until you get enough people on your friends list to play with. Once you find enough, it is easily some of the most fun you can have and become magic when the teamwork comes togeather.

I have a backlog myself, but it doesn't compare to this.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #25 on: July 01, 2011, 06:24:01 AM »
L4D2's "Meat" is in the multiplayer (with mics) especially in verses. However you are more than likely get a subpar experience if you only play with pubs. It's almost like hazing period until you get enough people on your friends list to play with. Once you find enough, it is easily some of the most fun you can have and become magic when the teamwork comes togeather.

Indeed. 9 times out of 10, the people I am put with for public matches obviously do not appreciate the team orientation. 1 time out of 10, I get into a really good group, and on those occasions, I always add these people to the Friends List, so that I might be able to join them again. Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 are blemished by a large proportion of the community that plays it, but when they work, they work amazingly well.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #26 on: July 02, 2011, 03:43:01 AM »
Super Meat Boy

There's a good game in here, I know it. I wish I could soak in its goodness more. Just one problem: I'm playing the PC version.

After the WiiWare cancellation debacle, this platform was the only avenue for me to acquire Super Meat Boy. Whenever you boot up the PC version of the game, the first screen you see is a picture of an Xbox 360 controller and a disclaimer stating:
'Controller vs Keyboard - Who will win? (Spoiler Alert: Controller wins)'.

Having heard so much about it, I was aware that this is the kind of game that would probably be more suited to a control, but nevertheless, I still expected the keyboard controls to be functional. After all, I did beat every level of the original Meat Boy on Newgrounds with those controls. Sadly, in Super Meat Boy, they are totally botched. It's truly infuriating, as I can't properly appreciate what is clearly an excellent platformer. In a way, it is kind of unacceptable that a title is released on PC with keyboard controls that do not work right. Not everybody has a gamepad to hook up to their computer, Team Meat, and what's worse, I know they could do better because their Flash game controlled fine.

Rant over. I'll have to pick up a joypad in the future if I'm to get any further than World 2. On that note, if you don't have a joypad, do not buy the PC version of Super Meat Boy.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #27 on: July 02, 2011, 07:14:43 AM »
Super Meat Boy

There's a good game in here, I know it. I wish I could soak in its goodness more. Just one problem: I'm playing the PC version.

After the WiiWare cancellation debacle, this platform was the only avenue for me to acquire Super Meat Boy. Whenever you boot up the PC version of the game, the first screen you see is a picture of an Xbox 360 controller and a disclaimer stating:
'Controller vs Keyboard - Who will win? (Spoiler Alert: Controller wins)'.

Having heard so much about it, I was aware that this is the kind of game that would probably be more suited to a control, but nevertheless, I still expected the keyboard controls to be functional. After all, I did beat every level of the original Meat Boy on Newgrounds with those controls. Sadly, in Super Meat Boy, they are totally botched. It's truly infuriating, as I can't properly appreciate what is clearly an excellent platformer. In a way, it is kind of unacceptable that a title is released on PC with keyboard controls that do not work right. Not everybody has a gamepad to hook up to their computer, Team Meat, and what's worse, I know they could do better because their Flash game controlled fine.

Rant over. I'll have to pick up a joypad in the future if I'm to get any further than World 2. On that note, if you don't have a joypad, do not buy the PC version of Super Meat Boy.
Honestly think that some developers puposely gimp the Controls they don't want people to use.  Like Jungle Beats GCN controls where much more terrible then they should have been.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #28 on: July 03, 2011, 02:04:52 PM »
Portal 2

Finished today. Upon completing the game, you are rewarded with an achievement called 'Lunacy', a fitting word to describe the end sequence.

Portal 2 is a fantastic experience from start to finish. Going in, anybody familiar with Portal knows that it can't pull the same trick twice. The novelty of understanding how the Portal gun works has vanished, so there have to be new hooks for a second go-around. And once you progress beyond the first handful of chambers, which are literally direct reprises from the first game, these hooks are introduced thick and fast. As soon as you think you've mastered one, you'll be required to utilise another, and when you think you've mastered that, the mechanics are combined, leading to even crazier puzzles. Portal 2 hits its stride with the difficulty curve much quicker than its predecessor - not that it ever feels like your brain will break. The increase in challenge comes in the form of advanced logic, not dexterity, and the game is better for it.

It would be easy to assume, based on the original Portal, that moving from chamber to chamber would be a monotonous structure over a longer game. Fortunately, the sequel is surprising in that respect, spreading clusters of test chambers between sections in which you explore the behind-the-scenes areas of the facility. The storytelling fills in the history behind what exactly happened at Aperture Science, in the way that Valve does best: by drip-feeding you details and presenting them mostly through clues in the environment. Overall, I was very happy with how the narrative played out.

As for the voice-acting, it's outstanding throughout from all the cast. The star of the show, of course, is Stephen Merchant as Wheatley, who gives what may be the best voice work I've ever heard in a video game. Before you call hyperbole on that statement, hear me out. There are plenty of notable examples of great voice-overs in this generation of high production values, like the Mass Effect series. However, while the delivery might be good, the adherence to the script is perhaps too perfect. In reality, nobody speaks that fluidly and that spontaneously. It's ironic then that, despite being a robot, Wheatley's characterisation and voice is more human than anybody else. He stutters, he hesitates, he repeats himself and his inflection changes constantly -- all traits that people in real life have when they talk, all traits that rarely come across in games. As I said in a different thread, Merchant's performance in Portal 2 demonstrates why actors should be given the freedom to ad-lib their lines more often, so that it all sounds more... real.

Phew. Single player done and dusted. I've finished 3 out of the 5 co-op chapters as well - if anyone wants to play the last two (or the earlier chapters, I don't mind), let me know.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #29 on: July 03, 2011, 02:12:36 PM »
As nice as it is to have regular sales on Steam, I really could do without it now. Minutes after I beat Portal 2, I checked the store and noticed that Trine, a game I'd been waiting to drop in price for a while, was now really cheap. I then noticed, for £1 extra, the Frozenbyte Collection, which included Trine and the two Shadowgrounds games. A deal's a deal.

At this rate, my backlog will never be gone. I'm taking one off the list and adding three more.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #30 on: July 04, 2011, 12:06:42 AM »
Super Meat Boy

There's a good game in here, I know it. I wish I could soak in its goodness more. Just one problem: I'm playing the PC version.

After the WiiWare cancellation debacle, this platform was the only avenue for me to acquire Super Meat Boy. Whenever you boot up the PC version of the game, the first screen you see is a picture of an Xbox 360 controller and a disclaimer stating:
'Controller vs Keyboard - Who will win? (Spoiler Alert: Controller wins)'.

Having heard so much about it, I was aware that this is the kind of game that would probably be more suited to a control, but nevertheless, I still expected the keyboard controls to be functional. After all, I did beat every level of the original Meat Boy on Newgrounds with those controls. Sadly, in Super Meat Boy, they are totally botched. It's truly infuriating, as I can't properly appreciate what is clearly an excellent platformer. In a way, it is kind of unacceptable that a title is released on PC with keyboard controls that do not work right. Not everybody has a gamepad to hook up to their computer, Team Meat, and what's worse, I know they could do better because their Flash game controlled fine.

Rant over. I'll have to pick up a joypad in the future if I'm to get any further than World 2. On that note, if you don't have a joypad, do not buy the PC version of Super Meat Boy.

Assuming your PC has Bluetooth, it's possible to rig it up so you can use a Wii Classic Controller with the game.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #31 on: July 04, 2011, 01:51:19 AM »
Assuming your PC has Bluetooth, it's possible to rig it up so you can use a Wii Classic Controller with the game.

Really? Please elaborate. I would kill to be able to use a Classic Controller.
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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #32 on: July 04, 2011, 11:26:49 AM »
It takes a bit of effort to configure it, but once you've got it set up it works great. I'm more familiar with doing it on a Mac, but this article seems to give a good tutorial for all platforms.
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Offline Dasmos

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #33 on: July 05, 2011, 06:56:03 PM »
Funny, I never paid attention to that disclaimer at the start of Super Meat Boy and I haven't had the slightest problem with controls. I guess if you don't think about it, you don't care. I've had a blast with it.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #34 on: July 06, 2011, 03:19:40 PM »
Left 4 Dead 2

Now that I've sampled both current DLC campaigns and the beta for the upcoming one, I think it's fair to cross this off my list. The download campaigns themselves (The Passing and The Sacrifice) are essentially more of the same, and the scenarios were slyly set up so that environments from the former could be re-used in the latter.

If we put sequels into categories like progressive and iterative, Left 4 Dead 2 would definitely fall under iterative. More characters, more guns, more pick-ups, more Special Infected, but fundamentally, it plays the same. The most substantial advancement is the addition of melee weapons that, while visceral and satisfying to use, don't change much in the grand scheme things. Because of this, it's difficult to recommend to people who don't like the first Left 4 Dead or those who wanted more significant improvements. That said, if a giant map pack is basically what you're looking for, L4D2 is a no-brainer, especially at the price it's now available for. At the moment, there are 7 campaigns ready to play, an eighth forthcoming, and like most Valve titles, there's an active mod culture.

For my part, provided I am fortunate enough to be grouped with players that respect the teamwork principals, I think there are few games that match Left 4 Dead 2 for intensity when the action heats up. You really do feel like a survivor. When the drum rolls kick in and the horde starts running, it's incredible. Sadly, as I alluded to before, the experience is hampered commonly by numpties who use up all the health packs, then sprint ahead trying to score the most kills.
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Offline oohhboy

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #35 on: July 06, 2011, 05:52:30 PM »
If I may, I would like to add a couple of points to the L4D2 review. The final set of orignal L4D1 maps are being ported to L4D2 sans Crash Course with adjustments being made to take into account of the new special infected abilities as it was with No Mercy and are to be released along side the beta map Cold Stream when it goes gold.

This will make it the most complete version of L4D between the two, rendering L4D1 nearly redundant. On the surface the additions are small, the additive effect opens up the game massively in Verses. The S.I additions allow for more unpredictability and more tactical choices L4D1 never had. So while the single and coop modes can be considered iterative, with human intelligence controlling the infected, it becomes a lot more progressive.

As far as FPS Zombie sub genera goes, there is none better than the L4D series, nothing really comes close. But when it comes to literal "Hoards" of enemies in FPS's, the ground is very thin. No other can match the volume of enemies that can be thrown at you and have such variety, nor can any other require such a high level of team work as this.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #36 on: July 08, 2011, 01:52:13 AM »
Mighty Flip Champs

Since the transfer of DSiWare to the 3DS does not carry save data, I've been replaying all of my downloads. It's been really eye-opening. At one point in time, I might have considered Mighty Flip Champs the best game on the service (high praise...), but I reckon, when playing it on DSi, I must have put it down right before the more frustrating puzzles that used an absurd number of layouts. For those who don't know, the premise of this title is that different level layouts are displayed on the top and bottom screen, impossible to move through on their own, but by pressing a button, you switch the layout where your character is. For the first couple of worlds, it eases you in, training you for the kind of mental processes required to understand and complete these levels.

Once you arrive at world 3, though, there are more than two layouts to work with, but at any given time, you can only see two of them: the one you're currently moving on and the one you'll be flipped to on the next button press. For this reason, with the exception of a few levels that change it up by flipping the layouts on a timer, most of the later puzzles didn't click with me at all. I felt like I was fumbling through them, guessing what to do because, in relation to where my character would be on the layouts not on screen, it is unclear what is going on.

In essence, what started as a neat little idea perfectly suited to its system became too far versed in trial and error. Not as fond of it in the end as my first impression was.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #37 on: July 09, 2011, 02:43:35 AM »
Donkey Kong '94

Status update: Stuck in a level of world 3, unsure how to reach the key. Convinced I need to read the electronic manual that comes with Virtual Console games. I think I'm having an issue of transparency with some of Mario's interactions with the levels.

Apart from that, it's been a pleasant surprise so far. There are more puzzle dynamics than I was expecting, the most clever being at the end of world 2, where you had to redirect shelled enemies using levers, then jump on these enemies and ride them to the key. Plus, the Donkey Kong boss stages seem to be developing nicely - not repeating, as many games of the era would have.

I find it kind of funny how, from Super Mario World onwards, all Mario games made it easy to rack up lives, yet also allow you to save at any time, making lives less important. DK '94 is like that; it's not difficult to activate the bonus game after each level and you're pretty much guaranteed 1 to 5-Ups every time. Not saying this is bad, just amusing for some reason.
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Offline apdude

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #38 on: July 09, 2011, 02:08:01 PM »
I had about 45 lives going into the final world and ended up using almost all of them going into the final battle.  It ramps up in difficulty near the end.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #39 on: July 11, 2011, 03:55:45 AM »
Toki Tori

Status update: Just reached the final world of the main game, Bubble Barrage. Technically, there's another world after that, but it was added well after the fact, so I consider it a bonus.

The titular Toki Tori is an adorable little chicken. Make no mistake, though: the levels in his game get difficult. Basically, Toki Tori is a 2D puzzle game in which your incapable character must use limited numbers of items to navigate levels and collect all the eggs scattered across them. It has an appropriately slow, methodical pace and includes several helpful features, such as a way to pan the camera through the whole stage so that actions can be planned ahead, and a comprehensive rewind function that can take you back to pretty much any point in your progress. Despite these measures, I am still sometimes flummoxed by even the Normal levels and have to ponder for quite a while before the solution comes. To be clear, they are called Normal - once you complete the dozen or so stages that populate a world, it unlocks a new set of Hard levels for said world. These don't mess around.

If you can accept more contemplative puzzlers that move a bit slower than average, Toki Tori is well worth picking up. I checked Steam and it's a measly 87p in the sale. Presumably, that means it would be a little over $1 on the American store.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #40 on: July 13, 2011, 03:44:29 AM »
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem

Status update: Onto the 6th world. Magnetic walls are fun.

On the surface, it's easy to dismiss this as a simple retread of March of the Minis and Minis March Again. The goal is the same as always: move components to direct your wind-up Mario toys to the exit. With that forethought out there, I've really enjoyed this. Every level is expertly put together, new elements roll out frequently, and the remixes of Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Country music leave an aura of joy over the game. It doesn't hurt that the Minis also happen to remind me of Pikmin, mainly in the voices.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #41 on: July 13, 2011, 09:19:33 AM »
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem

Status update: Onto the 6th world. Magnetic walls are fun.

On the surface, it's easy to dismiss this as a simple retread of March of the Minis and Minis March Again. The goal is the same as always: move components to direct your wind-up Mario toys to the exit. With that forethought out there, I've really enjoyed this. Every level is expertly put together, new elements roll out frequently, and the remixes of Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Country music leave an aura of joy over the game. It doesn't hurt that the Minis also happen to remind me of Pikmin, mainly in the voices.
Maybe their like Robotnik robots and their is really a Pikmin powering them from the inside.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #42 on: July 13, 2011, 11:45:54 AM »
That's a great premise for some Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis fanfiction.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #43 on: July 13, 2011, 12:16:24 PM »
That's a great premise for some Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis fanfiction.
Podcast Radio Drama lol...

Mini: Meep
Luigi:  Why have you encased these loving Plant Creatures into metal Facsimiles of my Dear Brother?
*pause*
Luigi: Was it because of his pact to no longer play your games Ape?
Mini:  Meep Meep
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #44 on: July 14, 2011, 12:30:08 PM »
Trine

As this thread has probably made abundantly clear, my genre of choice is the puzzle platformer, so I've no excuse as to why I didn't get this earlier. Trine is a fantasy-themed title in which you alternate between a wizard, a thief and a knight who all share the same body. Cool concept, brilliantly executed. The levels find good uses for every character's unique abilities, and in a lot of cases, there is more than one way to approach a puzzle or a combat encounter. For instance, if you come across a troop of skeletons, you could methodically slash & block as the knight, try to pick them off from a distance with the thief's bow, or use the wizard to summon objects and crush the enemies with them.

It controls intuitively for the most part - using the mouse to draw boxes with the wizard is especially fun - but it is occasionally finicky with the more precise platforming. Fortunately, it's usually not too demanding.

As if all that wasn't enough, I've also been endeared to the presentation. The style of storytelling, the art design and the soundtrack are all strongly reminiscent of the film interpretations of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, which are great qualities for fans of those films like me.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #45 on: July 17, 2011, 04:49:38 AM »
Spore

On account of the fact that I couldn't really remember much of what I did when I played it initially, I decided to start again (my new race was a crazy bird creature with all the primary colours coated on it) - it turns out that, with the possible exception of the last one, the five phases don't take very long to plough through. Technically, I'm not completely done, but I've exerted enough dominance over the galaxy to feel like it's done.

Firstly, the elephant in the room, the Creature Creator. It's clearly one of the most impressive character creation tools ever to grace videogames and perhaps always will be, but to be frank, I found it intimidating. Just the pages and pages of creature parts were a bit daunting, and then you see that you can meticulously scale segments of limbs, rotate features every which way, adjust the torso down to each individual vertebra... aaah. Based upon the number of YouTube videos out there of stuff made in Spore, there are many people who obviously enjoy just messing about in the creator. For me, there's too much to get a handle on, plus there's the creative bankruptcy getting in the way. Moreover, at the end of the day, what your creature looks like does not make that much of an affect; certain pieces carry attribute boosters, yet I didn't really pay attention to this and did just fine.

As for the phases of gameplay, the quality oscillates. The Cell phase, whilst occasionally strategic in how you deal with bigger organisms and featuring a neat depth-of-field effect, is essentially glorified Fishy, which is one of the simplest Flash games out there. The Creature phase starts to introduce more of the Sims-style mechanics and is more involved, although I found the controls to be somewhat awkward at times.

Reviews generally agreed that the two real-time strategy phases were very stripped down, and yeah, even as someone who's a relative RTS novice, I can tell that the Tribal phase is really basic. On the other hand, the Civilisation phase is a considerable upgrade on Tribal -- nowhere close to its namesake, the Civilisation series, but closer to the level of complexity I would want from this genre. However, this phase does require a lot more use of the creator to make your buildings, tanks, planes and boats. Again, for some people that might be great news. If you aren't adept at using the toolset and have no imagination, like me, it is not great to have so much to construct in this phase.

Finally, the Space phase is by far the longest of the phases, though not always for the best of reasons. It's fun to terraform planets on a whim and I enjoyed the subtle references to The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. However, it hits upon an issue that is pervasive throughout every phase: Spore is a very easygoing game. In the slower-paced Space phase, this can make proceedings wear thin after a while.

Whether or not somebody would like Spore is dependent on what they expect to get out of the Creature Creator. It's incredibly robust and comprehensive, perhaps to a fault. The actual game is always straightforward, but some phases are better than others.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #46 on: July 21, 2011, 10:50:27 AM »
Half-Life 2

Status update: Not sure where I am. Chapter 4 or 5, probably, somewhere early on.

I think I definitely need to give this game some more time. Given the esteem that this game has, as well as the pedigree of Valve, one of the few Western game developers really pushing the envelope right now, I expected this game to grow on me sooner, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe the conventions of first-person shooters in the last five years have made it hard to update - unlike almost all other FPS titles, Half-Life 2 is very, very undirected, despite being quite linear. There's never much indication of where to go, and there's a surprising amount of finding small holes or shafts to fit through in order to proceed. Furthermore, scripted events are near enough non-existent, as the gun play is not especially flashy, combat encounters do not last long anyway and as a whole, it is paced quite slowly. Perhaps modern games have spoilt me with how obvious the way to go is; either way, this has been hard to get into so far because of how aimless the progression feels.

On the flip side, the story and setting of the game has me intrigued. In the typical Valve fashion, there's a lingering sense that bad things have happened/are happening, but you absolutely have to pay close attention to the little details of the world if you want to be clued in. At the moment, I'm getting a strong 1984 vibe, which is no throwaway comparison. Graphically, Half-Life 2 still holds up pretty well, although the Source engine has come a long way since its release, so the likes of Portal and Left 4 Dead have exceeded it in that regard.
Tom Malina
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #47 on: July 21, 2011, 10:53:19 AM »
Half-Life 2

Status update: Not sure where I am. Chapter 4 or 5, probably, somewhere early on.

I think I definitely need to give this game some more time. Given the esteem that this game has, as well as the pedigree of Valve, one of the few Western game developers really pushing the envelope right now, I expected this game to grow on me sooner, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe the conventions of first-person shooters in the last five years have made it hard to update - unlike almost all other FPS titles, Half-Life 2 is very, very undirected, despite being quite linear. There's never much indication of where to go, and there's a surprising amount of finding small holes or shafts to fit through in order to proceed. Furthermore, scripted events are near enough non-existent, as the gun play is not especially flashy, combat encounters do not last long anyway and as a whole, it is paced quite slowly. Perhaps modern games have spoilt me with how obvious the way to go is; either way, this has been hard to get into so far because of how aimless the progression feels.

On the flip side, the story and setting of the game has me intrigued. In the typical Valve fashion, there's a lingering sense that bad things have happened/are happening, but you absolutely have to pay close attention to the little details of the world if you want to be clued in. At the moment, I'm getting a strong 1984 vibe, which is no throwaway comparison. Graphically, Half-Life 2 still holds up pretty well, although the Source engine has come a long way since its release, so the likes of Portal and Left 4 Dead have exceeded it in that regard.
Have you controlled the Antelions yet?  That's the Highlight of the game pretty much.  If you don't like it by then you probably aren't going to like it.
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #48 on: July 21, 2011, 10:58:41 AM »
Have you controlled the Antelions yet?  That's the Highlight of the game pretty much.  If you don't like it by then you probably aren't going to like it.

No, I don't believe I have. I think I'm still early on, trying to exit the sewers at the point where I am at. I haven't seen any different kinds of enemies besides the Combine officers and their annoying security robots.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #49 on: July 21, 2011, 11:00:24 AM »
Have you controlled the Antelions yet?  That's the Highlight of the game pretty much.  If you don't like it by then you probably aren't going to like it.

No, I don't believe I have. I think I'm still early on, trying to exit the sewers at the point where I am at. I haven't seen any different kinds of enemies besides the Combine officers and their annoying security robots.
Have you used any vehicles?  If no then yeah your early on.  You'll get sick of the vehicles more than likely.
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Offline UltimatePartyBear

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #50 on: July 21, 2011, 03:24:15 PM »
Have you controlled the Antelions yet?  That's the Highlight of the game pretty much.  If you don't like it by then you probably aren't going to like it.

No, I don't believe I have. I think I'm still early on, trying to exit the sewers at the point where I am at. I haven't seen any different kinds of enemies besides the Combine officers and their annoying security robots.

Sounds like you're in the second chapter. Combat starts getting more interesting during the first vehicle section, IMO, but it won't set itself apart until you get the gravity gun. You'll either love or hate Ravenholm and the journey up the coast, but the rest is consistently awesome.

Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #51 on: July 21, 2011, 03:42:59 PM »
Have you controlled the Antelions yet?  That's the Highlight of the game pretty much.  If you don't like it by then you probably aren't going to like it.

No, I don't believe I have. I think I'm still early on, trying to exit the sewers at the point where I am at. I haven't seen any different kinds of enemies besides the Combine officers and their annoying security robots.

Sounds like you're in the second chapter. Combat starts getting more interesting during the first vehicle section, IMO, but it won't set itself apart until you get the gravity gun. You'll either love or hate Ravenholm and the journey up the coast, but the rest is consistently awesome.
I got tired of the vehicles real quick.  They could have cut those sections in half.  I liked the on foot stuff for the most part but, I didn't like the last chapter because its not nearly as challenging as it should be or the chapter right in front of it.
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Offline UltimatePartyBear

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #52 on: July 21, 2011, 03:57:25 PM »
When I mentioned the first vehicle section, I meant the bits where you get out and fight.  Like the part that introduced grenades. I replayed that over and over trying to get great grenade kills.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #53 on: July 24, 2011, 02:56:18 PM »
Kirby's Epic Yarn

Status update: In Snow Land. The last level I did involved moving through cabins made from giant mittens. The music in this world is joyously Christmassy.

For now, I'll just say that, as a latecomer, I knew a lot of what to expect going into Epic Yarn, and it hasn't disappointed. 'Delightful' is undoubtedly the word of choice. The fact that you cannot die is really mitigated by the variety, the fluidness of controlling Kirby and the many ways in which the sublime art style works into the levels. I even look forward to getting back out to the hub, so I can watch the latest animation that will give me access to the next door. I would prefer it if the gem multiplier at the end of each stage wasn't so generous, as without it, there would be a greater challenge to obtaining the gold medals, but oh well. Difficulty most certainly is not what the game is about.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #54 on: July 28, 2011, 03:38:30 AM »
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem

All done now. To reiterate, very well done, especially considering this is the third go-around for the Minis concept. There's also a lot of levels in this game - I still have a handful of the unlockable extra-hard ones to complete - so if you're concerned about value, as the previous game was on DSiWare, don't be.

There was one last point I wanted to go over. Literally everyone, when discussing this or either of its predecessors, seems to immediately draw the comparison to Lemmings. I get where they're coming from, but they honestly aren't that close. Firstly, in Lemmings, there is always a single exit goal for your little guys, whereas in Mario vs DK, you might have mini Marios, mini Toads and mini Peaches, each with their own gate. Second, interaction with objects plays a much greater role in Mario vs DK. The stages are dynamic enough that you can't just set up and let the Minis run on autopilot, so you'll be constantly tapping and drawing, deleting pieces and replacing them elsewhere. Plus, in Mini-Land Mayhem, every Mini has to arrive at the end; the penalty for accidentally destroying one is the Game Over screen. With Lemmings, it's really just about equipping the little guys with the necessary tools to win, and the survival quotas are often quite forgiving.

In short, if anybody has ever thought "I don't like Lemmings, therefore I won't enjoy this", give it a try. The similarities between the two series have been exaggerated.
Tom Malina
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #55 on: July 29, 2011, 01:57:07 AM »
Donkey Kong '94

Status update: Stuck in a level of world 3, unsure how to reach the key. Convinced I need to read the electronic manual that comes with Virtual Console games. I think I'm having an issue of transparency with some of Mario's interactions with the levels.
You can also wait on the title screen and soon it will demonstrate all the moves which Mario can perform.

This game is a first for quite a few things, not just an abundance of lives. Mario's moves from Super Mario 64 are clearly inspired by this game, most notably the side flip and triple jump. It's also the first time Mario can be hurt from falling, something which otherwise exists only in the 3D games. Lastly, it is the first time Mario's deaths became more gruesome, a trend which would continue with the 3D installments. Simply falling off the screen is a thing of the past.

All that said, I really enjoyed the game, and you should stick with it. I found it much better than Mario vs Donkey Kong on the GBA, mostly because of the lack of mini-Marios. Though not overusing switches probably helps too.

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #56 on: July 29, 2011, 02:08:40 AM »
Mario can be hurt by falling because he could be hurt by falling in the original Donkey Kong arcade game, though '94 is a lot more forgiving about it.
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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #57 on: July 29, 2011, 02:21:51 AM »
Oh yeah, I always forget about that, since I've barely played the original. Funny how I'm a huge Mario fan and I don't even own his debut game, Donkey Kong. And it isn't like I don't like it; I first played it in Donkey Kong 64 and actually enjoyed getting the coin you have to earn from playing it.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #58 on: July 31, 2011, 03:28:07 AM »
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

Status update: Decent headway into the Haven campaign.

Good fun, though I am waiting for it to ramp up in difficulty. Like any good puzzler, you develop a language, so to speak, of how to recognise patterns and move your units in the most effective way, so as not to waste turns. To lay this out, Clash of Heroes is a grid-based puzzle game laid on top of an RPG. It retains the typical trappings, such as towns filled with NPCs to talk to, level ups, exp points and items that have special effects on your units, although I haven't found a great deal of use for the latter so far.

Really, the core of Clash of Heroes is the battle system, where on the touch screen, you attempt to match units of the same colour in columns of three (which primes them for offence) or rows of three (which primes them for defence) and then send them to attack the enemy army on the top screen. Depending on the units in play, you can also create more powerful formations e.g. 2 units behind an Elite, or a square of 4 behind a Champion. Now that I've learned the basic pattern recognition though, it does somewhat feel like I'm going through the motions. I get the impression that the AI of the opponents is deliberately holding back - I never had much trouble throughout the entire Sylvan campaign, and in the next one, the computer player still acts stupidly sometimes. For example, making a line of three to attack, but not actually giving the order to attack for two turns, for no reason that I can discern.
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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #59 on: August 01, 2011, 04:29:34 AM »
Bit.Trip FLUX

Of every game in my backlog, this may be the one that gets crossed off the list without me actually completing it. The final stage is so, so, so bloody difficult, perhaps it is beyond my abilities. I'll probably go back to the game some time down the road - it could work out like BEAT, which I eventually finished a year and a half after I first obtained it.

So I might have exaggerated this. For whatever reason, I booted up FLUX yesterday, and I must have been in The Zone. That's right, I finally conquered the last level, Catharsis, which fits because that is what you'll feel when you're done. Well, I say that, but it felt like I was hanging by a thread, and I did go into Nether twice, only to come out of it on the edge of my seat. Yet after all the insanity in the closing minutes, it ends with an anti-climatic 'boss', where you simply bounce a single beat against a wall for a couple of minutes. Then, once that's done, you get a strange, calming epilogue section - I've read in interviews that this series has a grand narrative chronicling Commander Video's life, but that is way over my head.

If I had to rank the games I've played in the series, it would be as follows:
Runner -> Void -> Beat = Flux
I never picked up Core or Fate, just because the reception was kind of mixed on those two.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #60 on: August 04, 2011, 07:59:51 AM »
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

Inspired by a mention in the current RetroActive poll thread, I went back to Billy Hatcher. It's been several years, so I decided to begin a new file. On my old file, I had gotten to the Sand Ruin world, which I think is near the end, and on my new file, I'm up to the second stage of Circus Park. Almost caught up, then.

I'll go over it in more detail once I've finished. To give my abridged thoughts, this is actually better than I remember. It shares quite a lot in common with a 3D Mario game, in spite of Sonic Team's involvement, even down to some of the level objectives, like collecting X number of Red Coins, racing this character to the end, etc. The unique feature about the game is the interaction with eggs - rolling them around, making them bigger using fruit, crushing enemies with them and then finally hatching them with an exclamation of the incredibly Engrish "Cookoo-doon-doo!" to obtain elemental pets or power-ups. It's a nifty system, and while holding an egg, you can pull off various manoeuvres, such as a ground pound that bounces Billy way up and a turbo boost that sends him careening. The only potentially annoying quirk that you need to be aware of is that to keep hold of an egg, you have maintain momentum, so sharp movements with the control stick are a no-go, as they will disengage Billy from the egg. It's just something you get used to after a little while; for example, if you wish to turn around, rather than pushing the stick in the other direction, steer the egg round in a U-turn.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2011, 08:05:47 AM by Killer_Man_Jaro »
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #61 on: August 07, 2011, 06:37:47 AM »
Machinarium

Thanks to the highly affordable Humble Indie Bundle #3, all of a sudden I have 10 more (hopefully small) games added to the backlog. I started with Machinarium, a point-and-click adventure that I've had my eye on for a while. It hasn't quite gotten its hooks in yet, but I'm still early on, so there's still plenty of time for it to grow on me.

The game's personality certainly hits it out of the park right from the outset. Your cute little robot protagonist holds much of the same charm as Pixar's WALL-E, the aesthetic is very well realised and the story looks like it is heading in some interesting directions. It seems there may be a conspiracy afoot in this weird mechanical world...


As for what you actually do, Machinarium is traditional point-&-click fare, interacting with objects, using inventory items, solving puzzles, the usual. The game is clever about how it handles hints, as your robot's thought bubbles will show the primary objective of the puzzle and give small clues as to the next step. Where I take issue with it is in some of the design anachronisms. For a modern title in this genre, it does take an unfortunate number of old-school tropes. Sometimes, it's hard to identify what in the environment can be interacted with. This might be seen as a compliment to the consistency and the organic nature of the art style, but I'm finding it to be a bit of a nuisance. In that same vein, because of the lack of text, nothing is labelled and as a result, there have been a couple of instances where I picked up an item that I wasn't actually sure what it was and how it could be utilised. I imagine that, for people who played a lot of this kind of game back in the day, these are standard, but as a relatively recent convert to the adventure game genre, they're niggling annoyances.
Tom Malina
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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #62 on: August 10, 2011, 12:16:04 AM »
Glad to see you finished Flux. One of the only Bit.Trip games I actually beat. The other one was Void.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #63 on: August 10, 2011, 03:00:40 PM »
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Status update [SPOILER ALERT]: Finally started this up today and played to the scene where Lynne is killed (again) by the "murder machine". Craziness.

The lineage of this game can apparently be traced back to the Ace Attorney series, but whereas I became irritated with Phoenix Wright due to the obtuse logic required for many of the court scenes, I am finding the thought processes needed for Ghost Trick to be very satisfying. For those uninitiated, Ghost Trick, in a nutshell, is about the spirit of a man named Sissel trying to find out the cause of his death, which plays out through levels in which he possesses objects to solve puzzles - generally, the puzzle is to avert somebody's death. There's a nice variety to the scenarios, both in terms of locations and use of items, and although it hasn't been all that difficult up to where I've got to, I sense that the sequence of events could get complicated. When I first that the game was predicated to a large extent on rewinding scenes, I was concerned that it might descend into trial-and-error quickly, but at least so far, that hasn't been a problem. In fact, in the couple of instances where I have had to rewind time, it's been a great revelation on what I have to do.

Of course, it helps that the much-hyped rotoscoped animation is positively sublime. I went in with high expectations because I've heard a great deal about how smooth it is, and I was still blown away by the expressiveness of every single character's movements. Obviously, it wouldn't be so striking if everyone didn't walk really extravagantly, but that just adds to the game's whimsical style.

Speaking of which, credit is also owed to the script. The writing has been consistently humorous and entertaining, particularly in the early level with the dog, Missile. It's so fun - he talks just like you'd imagine a little dog would!
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #64 on: August 12, 2011, 05:31:14 PM »
Sonic Colours

Polished that one off this afternoon (the Wii version is what we're talking about here), excepting a handful of the Simulator levels. Anyway, if I'd played this in 2010, I reckon it would've taken the 'Biggest Surprise' award, because it's really quite good. Not without some demerits, but definitely worth playing. I don't blame you for being apprehensive. Seriously though, it's a fun Sonic game.

The main area where it excels above its predecessors is that Sonic Colours has a much smoother feel to its control scheme, and moreover, the levels are, for the most part, designed around the controls. I had the misfortune of being gifted Sonic Heroes back in the Gamecube days, and with that game, not only did Sonic move wildly, but the levels were made with cheap death traps that were far too easy to go zooming into because of how uncontrollable the characters were. In Colours, the controls and the levels are way more synonymous with each other. I was able to anticipate what was ahead of me much better, plus Sonic can now drift around corners. The powerslide is unfortunately not always reliable - I'd say about 80% of the time, it's fine, but occasionally, it over-steers and cuts your momentum, and I didn't know how I had done it differently when that happened.


As with all 3D Sonic games, there's a fair amount of running straight ahead into the screen, where your input is fairly limited, although it seems there's less of it than some of the others. Sensibly enough, the 3D platforming is usually pretty simple, while the twitchy stuff is reserved for the 2D sections. The good thing about Colours is that, during parts of levels when the movement is somewhat on-rails, it makes a spectacle. The graphics are bright, vibrant and flashy, which does a lot to sustain those sections.

The big additions for this game, of course, are the Wisp power-ups. There's 8 different species in total, and the ones that are most enjoyable are those that let you explore for little nooks, with the Rocket and the Drill having the broadest applications in the levels they feature in. Essentially, this allows you to play a level multiple times and take completely separate routes to the end. For example, I might go through a stage and think "Hm, I wonder if I could have used the Rocket at that point", then I'd try it and find a new path with a Red Ring (needed to unlock secret levels). I really like that aspect of it. Some of the other Wisps, like the Block, are less interesting because it's blatantly obvious as to where they must be used.

There's a couple of sticking points that detracted from my enjoyment. At the top of the list is the perfunctory story elements, specifically the voice acting. I kept reading that they had brought in an entirely new voice cast that's supposed to be much better, but that's not the impression I got. I still found the characters to be just as grating and cringe-inducing as before. Further down the list is the pointless quick-time events that come into play every time Sonic launches off a ramp. You just hammer the A Button for a few seconds; it adds nothing to the game.

Regardless, I believe Sonic Colours is worth picking up. It is a very surprising instalment in that franchise.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #65 on: August 13, 2011, 05:04:07 AM »
Machinarium

Not the longest of games, as it turns out. 6 hours, maybe?

My final thoughts are rosier than what I said a few days ago. In the early going, the puzzles are enclosed and take place in single rooms, but once you break out into the city, there are lots of areas you can visit at any time and multiple objectives that can be tackled in a fairly non-linear fashion. So much so that it is sometimes difficult to keep track of everything and how they all link together. The other important development of the gameplay once you're in the city is that a larger proportion of the brainteasers are mechanical, engineering problems. It's still a point-and-click adventure, so naturally there continues to be 'Find X item, use at Y' scenarios, but there are also many puzzles based on moving things around i.e. sliding panels, connecting coloured dots, redirecting the flow of water through a pipe network, and so on. These are closer to Professor Layton puzzles.

In terms of all the other components of Machinarium, I'm pretty much where I was last time. The game is amusing in that quiet, pantomime kind of way. Moreover, the hand-drawn art style is absolutely wonderful - I saw that it won the award for Excellence in Visual Design at the most recent Independent Games Festival, and deservingly so. I know that creating graphics by hand is impractical for time and effort, but still, I wish more games would do it. It's a shame, though, that these visuals are a bit of a double-edged sword, in that because of how consistent they are in every screen, key items that you need to progress blend right in with the scenery. Whenever I got stuck in this game, it was generally because I was missing an item that I would come upon by chance later. They really don't stand out at all.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #66 on: August 16, 2011, 08:29:13 AM »
Osmos
Another of the Humble Indie Bundle games. I didn't complete everything, I simply played enough to unlock all the zones and made sure to sample each one. There's just not really enough to Osmos to sustain it.

To give the overview, you are a cellular organism within a cell culture. The primary objective in every level is to fly into and absorb smaller organisms, avoid bigger organisms and eventually grow into the biggest in the culture. Strangely, it's controlled entirely by the mouse - you click around the organism to propel it, scroll to zoom in & out, and that's about it. However, whenever the organism is propelled, small pieces of its mass will break off, which means that moving in subtle increments and never going too long without absorbing is strongly advised. It's definitely a weird scheme, and it can be difficult to reduce momentum once you've built it up.

The levels are divided into three separate chains, known as Sentient, Force and Ambient respectively. Sentient is the most basic, free-form mode of the three - everything's kind of random and unstructured, and from level to level, there's very little development in what you must do beyond 'Become Huge'. Force is essentially the same, the only difference being that instead of moving freely, all of the organisms are in orbit of large bodies of matter than cannot be absorbed. You can still guide your organism to a lesser extent, but it will follow an orbit on autopilot.

Lastly, Ambient is the more puzzle-based mode, and because of that, it's by far my favourite. Unlike the other two modes, the Ambient levels have some semblance of structured design to them, as usually, the other organisms are placed at specific points around the culture and do not move. All of a sudden, the method of accessing the little organisms becomes quite strategic. It introduces a nuanced technique where you have to expel some mass into a larger organism, which will gradually push it into even larger organisms, then you can swoop in and absorb it once it has shrunk sufficiently. These stages are way more interesting to me, although they still suffer a bit from being much too slow.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #67 on: August 18, 2011, 04:59:02 PM »
Super Meat Boy

What a relief! After extreme patience and perseverance pushed me through a little over 3000 deaths, I finally conquered the light world of Super Meat Boy... with keyboard controls, no less. I found my old computer joypad, but for some reason, it caused the game to be incredibly buggy, ruling out that option. I didn't really want to shell out for a 360 pad, so I thought "Screw it, I just want to play this damn game!" and decided to just grin and bear the keyboard scheme. Luckily, I was able to get used to it, but it never fully clicked, and I'm willing to attribute a few hundred of those deaths to imprecise movement on the arrow keys and the sometimes unresponsive space bar.

Again, I have to reiterate how disappointing it is that the PC version did not receive the care and polish it needed on the default controls, because in almost all other regards, Super Meat Boy is an fantastically intense 2D platformer. The insidious difficulty can be the source of much frustration, there's no doubt about that. From the start of Hell onwards, it becomes very demanding. However, all the way down to specific platform placement and patterns that the hazards move in, the levels have a brilliant fluidity and sense of flow to them. If you are quick to react and master the timing, it is possible to pull off seemingly impossible feats, which are necessary for all the extras, like target times, collectible bandages and secret warp zones. It's thrilling stuff.

I also can't fault the breadth of content available. Even after completing it, I've still got a whole load of dark world levels, more characters to unlock and the Super Meat World user-generated hub to dive into. The latter might be hit or miss - from my brief sampling of it so far, it's become apparent that in the wrong hands, the level editor can produce some truly evil, twisted designs.

To finish off, I must give special mention to the soundtrack. The songs have a unique modern-retro flavour to them, mixing distortion guitar riffs and choral elements with synths and electronic sounds more akin to old 8-bit and 16-bit titles. More than anything, the music is what kept me sane in the later areas when I was dying left, right and centre. Throw it on your iPod or mp3 player ASAP.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #68 on: August 23, 2011, 10:35:30 AM »
Revenge of the Titans

Currently at the end of the Mars chain of levels. Titans are everywhere.

Revenge of the Titans is a fairly traditional tower defence game. There's a base, you build various towers to protect it as swarms and swarms of aliens march across the map. It's kinda fun in small doses, I suppose. The main issue with it is one I have with the majority of entries in this overpopulated genre: the game doesn't develop in an interesting way. As you move forward, it sends larger Titans, and you deal with them by researching more powerful turrets from an unnecessarily convoluted upgrade web. That sort of progression is really not that compelling. I still feel that Plants vs Zombies is the only tower defence title that manages to escape from this slippery slope, encouraging you to employ different strategies every mission.

In a word, meh. Haven't decided if I'll try to finish this one or cut it short.
Tom Malina
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Offline UltimatePartyBear

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #69 on: August 23, 2011, 05:26:52 PM »
I watched the trailer for that one during an indie game binge on Steam.  I liked the retro look of it and only avoided buying it by reminding myself that I hate tower defense games.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #70 on: August 28, 2011, 07:15:04 AM »
A Boy and His Blob

All wrapped up, with the majority of the secret levels done. I really wish dying and retrying on the final boss was handled better, but alas, it's over now.

I had great fun with A Boy & His Blob, while also observing some room for improvement along the way (fingers are crossed for a sequel one day). The puzzles are, for the most part, well-thought out and varied and the hand-drawn art and smooth-as-butter animation are a delight, if slightly repetitious with the backgrounds. It adds new jelly beans into the mix at a good, consistent clip, even when you're deep into the game, keeping it fresh and maintaining that sense of experimentation with the different transformations.

It's especially interesting when you contrast the structure of the regular levels with that of the challenge levels. Instead of a load-out of 7 or 8 jelly beans to mess with, these primarily focus on one or two. In many cases, they use elements that are similar to the normal stages, but with a more limited set of beans, something as straightforward as, let's say, getting up to a high ledge, which would be easy with the trampoline, must be approached very differently. In the very first world, one of these secret levels gives you nothing but the anvil, seemingly one of the simpler transformations. However, I was impressed by just how many uses there were for it - they really wrung the anvil for all its worth in that level.

As for areas that need to be fine-tuned should a follow-up be produced, the means for keeping the boy and the blob together is high on the list. The fact that the balloon transformation exists at all is testament to how much of a problem it gets to be. If they cannot program a blob intelligent enough to jump over walls and such, give me a function that warps him to the boy immediately. On another note, I don't mind that the aiming controls are mapped to the analog stick, but I would prefer it if the trajectory lines were more accurate, as I found that the line didn't account for how the bean would bounce particularly well.

Then, of course, we have to talk about the boss battles. Some aspects of the bosses are great, and other aspects are infuriating. I like the idea of a puzzle-based boss fight, especially in the way it makes you turn the enemy's attack against itself. Plus, in terms of animation, I think the pinnacle of it is in the bosses; they move so fluidly. Unfortunately, damaging them tends to require precision. I already mentioned to problems with the aiming, but when you're under no pressure to move quickly. During boss encounters, there's a tonne of pressure to do so, and it's immensely frustration. Furthermore, because it's so much easier to be killed in these sections of the game, it either needs to have checkpoints after you've hurt the boss or it needs to restart quicker. The last boss is particularly onerous in that regard - I can't believe you have to run down the corridor to him every single time.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #71 on: August 30, 2011, 06:43:57 AM »
Kirby's Epic Yarn

Finished up with all treasures, all gold medals and about a third of the perfunctory apartment minigame stuff.

As I powered through the fabric version of Dream Land, I was struck by a thought: would this game still be fun and enticing if the graphical style was standard fare e.g. polygonal graphics like the upcoming Kirby Wii game? It's a difficult question. I think it would lose some of its appeal without the yarn look. I get a kick out of the smallest visual tricks, like the burnt fabric in that one lava level and the cotton wool snowballs. At the same time, there's a fair argument to be made for the game being so entrenched in that aesthetic, a lot of the play mechanics wouldn't make sense without it. The art is, in many ways, in service of the level design, and I feel that's what I enjoy about Kirby's Epic Yarn.

One aspect of the game that would be awesome no matter what the style is the soundtrack. Piano is the main flavour of the music, with shades of Charlie Brown in the melodies. Even better, though, is that there's very little repetition of tracks - unlike some games, where there's a theme to the whole world, Epic Yarn mixes it up constantly.

I'll close this out with a more philosophical musing. Taken as a sandbox, there's some enjoyment to be had with the traditional Kirby platformer, but it appears that, whenever they remove the Kirby staples (infinite jumping and inhaling enemies), his games become more interesting. Case in point: this, Power Paintbrush, and the soon-to-be-released Mass Attack.
Tom Malina
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Offline Oblivion

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #72 on: August 30, 2011, 10:32:57 AM »
Is it too easy?

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #73 on: August 30, 2011, 11:08:36 AM »
Is it too easy?

Hm. Well, the fact that you cannot be killed means that you'll at no point have trouble just completing the levels. And I would say that it's often too easy to achieve gold medals, mainly because of a score multiplier at the end of every level that can turn pitiful scores into a shiny gold.

If it wasn't apparent, you shouldn't play Epic Yarn to be challenged. The most important thing is that, whilst it is very easy, it's not boring. I had a lot of fun with it, and finding the hidden items involves a decent level of exploration. Outstanding visuals, fantastic music, it's a class package. But yes, you will not find it difficult at any point.
Tom Malina
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Offline Oblivion

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #74 on: August 30, 2011, 11:23:32 AM »
Good. I'm usually a fan of easy mode.

Offline Ceric

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #75 on: August 30, 2011, 11:30:22 AM »
Now the real question.  Could a Three Year old play it?
Need a Personal NonCitizen-Magical-Elf-Boy-Child-Game-Abused-King-Kratos-Play-Thing Crimm Unmaker-of-Worlds-Hunter-Of-Boxes
so, I don't have to edit as Much.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #76 on: August 30, 2011, 11:45:38 AM »
Depends on the attention span of the 3 year old. If they can remember what the buttons do, then yeah, probably. They most likely wouldn't get the high scores and medals, but they could manage it.

Put it this way. At age 4, I played Super Mario World, a considerably harder platform game, and although it took a long, long time, I eventually conquered it.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #77 on: September 01, 2011, 05:38:09 PM »
Braid

Status update: I've traversed all worlds up to and including world 6, and have all the puzzle pieces in worlds 2 and 3. It's now dawned on me that I will be unable to access the last world until I obtain all the remaining pieces, which makes me wonder why the game allowed me to skip past them. Although it might be nice that I can exit a section that I'm stuck on and return to it with a fresh perspective later, it fosters the impression that these puzzle pieces are, to some extent, optional.

My current feeling is that, for all its clever, evolving ideas, Braid would be better if it did a greater job of explaining things. To give the quick synopsis, Braid is a 2D puzzle platformer that uses a time rewind ability as its central mechanic. Each successive world puts a twist on this, which leads to elements like basing the flow of time on which direction you move in and creating a shadow of your movements. This is what's awesome about Braid. You'll spend a several levels learning one concept and applying it, then in the next world, there's a different set of rules to consider. It's a cool progression structure with a good amount of variety - throw in a 'painted' art style, and you've got the recipe for something really special. Right?

Well, only half right. In the hub area of every world, there are a bunch of text files that attempt to tell a story about the relationship between the main character and the princess he is trying to rescue. This in itself seems heavy-handed and unnecessary, but that's not where the problem lies. The problem lies in the fact that, where the narrative stuff is totally overdone, the explanation of important functions is severely underdone. Okay, you've told me that objects with a green hue are not affected by time reversal. How about mentioning that sparkling objects let me rewind without my character retracing his steps? That's just one of numerous key functions that aren't described well or at all. There are still certain things I don't understand, specifically regarding the inconsistency of which keys open which locks.

To put it simply, I wish the game didn't leave me to work out these mechanics by some fluke. It's especially a kick in the teeth that these go unexplained, while it felt the need to give me worthless paragraphs about my character's emotional wellbeing. Putting aside how overblown the story beats are, the rest of Braid has zero connection to all that.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #78 on: September 04, 2011, 04:05:20 PM »
And Yet It Moves

Completed this on WiiWare, and did a sampling of the PC version, which came in the Humble Bundle.

As a fan of gravity manipulation and world orientation in my games, I dug And Yet It Moves. It doesn't have the really satisfying speed or twitch platforming of something like VVVVVV, the inaugural game in this backlog, but what it lacks in pace, it more than makes up for in smart environmental brainteasers and nuanced controls. The Wii version has a handful of control options to choose from, although I actually had the most fun with the Remote and Nunchuk scheme, as I found tilting the Remote was the most accurate for making very minute, subtle adjustments to the world.

It's unfortunate that the PC version is less enticing. Whereas the Wii game allows for complete freedom of rotation in any increment, the PC game is much more restrictive, with only 90 degree turns enabled. From my experience playing the first few levels that way, it just feels really clunky. There's one early puzzle where you have to use the mechanic to move falling water drops around platforms - this was a nice, easy one on the Wii, but on PC, with limited rotations, it was too cumbersome to be much fun.

So to anybody interested in downloading And Yet It Moves, go for WiiWare. Outside of the main mode, there are time trials to pursue, as well as a robust Achievement list. My personal favourite is the breakneck challenge of going from start to finish in a level without touching the ground.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #79 on: September 07, 2011, 06:30:09 PM »
Trine

...and now I am eager to get my hands on Trine 2, coming later this year.

My closing words on Trine largely reflect what I said before. Throughout the later levels, it's still inventive with its environmental puzzles, adds more abilities and rewards vigilant play with a level-up system that gives worthwhile upgrades. The 2.5D visuals also continue to be bright, colourful and fantastical. Occasionally, there's an issue of perceiving depth in the sense that background details can look like they are part of the foreground you are playing on, but this rarely has a serious impact on the experience. Nope, Trine is totally worth tracking down if you like physics-based platforming of any kind.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #80 on: September 10, 2011, 01:38:57 PM »
Chrono Trigger

Status update: Gotten to Mystic Mountain 60,000,000 B.C. for the first time and have Ayla in my party. I want Chrono Trigger out of the way before I properly sink my teeth into Xenoblade Chronicles.

This has been a grand experiment for me. I've vocalised in other venues my general distaste for most JRPGs (the exceptions being Pokémon, which I can get it into because it is so customisable, and Mario & Luigi, which is flat-out great). Others have since persuaded me to try out the universally acclaimed Chrono Trigger, which I have been told is a good entry point into the genre. I don't think I'm 100% on board with that line of thinking.

At the moment, I'm teetering back and forth on whether I like Chrono Trigger. My lack of experience with Japanese role-playing games has definitely been a barrier, and despite putting several hours under my belt, I still don't have a really solid grasp on all of its systems.

On a positive note, the underlying theme of time travel works nicely, and leads to a neat parallel world dynamic akin to the Dark World in Link to the Past or the changing overworlds in the Oracle games. It's a lot of fun to visit the same location centuries apart and explore these recognisable places, observing all the little differences in the characters and the environment. It would be even better if it pushed you along in the right direction little more. I've had to consult a guide a couple of times to find out where to go, something I would ordinarily try to avoid doing. If this is supposed to be relatively linear by 16-bit RPG standards, I'm alarmed, as Chrono Trigger certainly does not funnel you down the critical path.

Now, let's talk battle mechanics. On paper and out of context, they look interesting, especially the Dual Techniques; in practice though, I'm flustered. Firstly, when I learned of the Active Time Battle concept that Squaresoft apparently pioneered in several of their titles, I took that to mean that it was more action-oriented than the usual turn-based format, similar to how timing plays into attack and defence in Mario & Luigi. However, it wasn't long before I had to disable this feature. Active Time Battle is still very much turn-based, it's just that if you aren't snappy with your decisions, the enemy can hit you twice before you hit them once. Sod that.

Secondly, what is up with the elemental alignments? I was hoping to utilise my Pokémon knowledge when they were first introduced, but the strengths and weaknesses of the elements do not work in a rock-paper-scissors fashion - rather, it works in pairs. So water triumphs over fire, but fire also triumphs over water. What the hell? That makes no logical sense, and while I imagine it's probably explained somewhere, I obviously missed that memo. When I have to peruse a guide because I don't understand something mechanical, there is a problem.

Finally, I was informed that Chrono Trigger is a rare RPG that doesn't require grinding, which is always a plus. Grinding is insidious in practically anything. Unfortunately, there have been a few brick walls so far, particularly the fight against Masamune.

I realise I'm being totally sacrilegious with my analysis of this cherished title. Do keep in mind that there are many aspects that I am more fond of. Your party is a unique, disparate bunch of characters, and I like that each one has a distinct style of speaking to reflect their personality and the time period they originate from. In addition, the soundtrack... absolutely stupendous. Even though I haven't delved into a lot of Square's back catalogue, I had a clear impression of what their music sounded like. Chrono Trigger has defied those expectations. Here is my favourite example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHbF4t5Unrs

I have surround sound hooked up to my gaming rig, and this song, which you thankfully hear with frequency, sounds soooo good. Ah, that bass! This was highly unexpected the first time I hopped into a battle.
Tom Malina
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #81 on: September 10, 2011, 03:19:48 PM »
What game do you think would be a good entry point for RPGs, whether it exists or is what you'd hypothetically consider ideal? The problem with making an RPG more accessible is that doing so tends to turn it into another genre entirely, or a sub-genre at best. For example, an action-RPG is usually easier to get into than a menu-based RPG, but the gameplay is also entirely different. Even something like Mario and Luigi plays pretty differently from a traditional RPG, whether or not it's actually in a different genre. Chrono Trigger successfully streamlines the formula without morphing it into something beyond recognition, and even though it still has a couple problems with direction, I can think of no other RPG that does a better job.

Yeah, the Active Time Battle is basically the game's hard mode. It makes it so that monsters don't stop their actions when your menus come up, so you have to select your commands quickly before they attack.

I'm glad you're liking the soundtrack though, it's one of the best out there, and it might just be my favourite.

Offline UltimatePartyBear

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #82 on: September 10, 2011, 06:07:22 PM »
Masamune really is a pretty hard boss fight if you're not a little over leveled when you get there, but Chrono Trigger is still one of the best RPGs there is for not grinding, IF you don't avoid fights.  The game's much touted avoidable encounters make it easy to be under leveled instead.  It's an odd thing that two features the game is praised for so often run counter to each other like that.

I like to think the music is so good because the composer nearly killed himself pouring his soul into writing it.  Yasunori Mitsuda threatened to quit unless he was allowed to compose, so Square let him be the sole composer on Chrono Trigger.  He worked himself so hard he had to be hospitalized, and so Square's most famous composer, Nobuo Uematsu, finished for him.  Unfortunately, I don't know which tracks were written by Uematsu.

Mitsuda worked on Xenoblade, too, by the way.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #83 on: September 12, 2011, 06:11:05 PM »
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

Nah nah nahnah nah nah nahnah nahnah *cheerful whistling*

I'm willing to bet that there's a lot of people of give Billy Hatcher a miss because of its disgustingly sweet, unapologetically Japanese presentation. For some people, I understand that this might be a difficult layer to get past, but trust me, if you can track it down, I think it would be worthwhile. Aside from some weirdness with the controls, it's a quirky 3D platformer unlike any other that actually gets quite challenging, despite what the childish aesthetic may lead you to believe.


The only real source of frustration I encountered during my playthrough (which I also remember grating on my nerves when I played it years ago) are the hoops that break up the standard platforming. I can't think of much analogous to these, except for maybe the Donkey Kong Country barrel cannons, in that some hoops shoot your character out immediately, some rotate and others can be aimed. As you could probably imagine, in three dimensions, it is tricky to perceive what angle you will be fired out at and where you will end up.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #84 on: September 17, 2011, 08:43:35 AM »
Chrono Trigger

To my knowledge, I got the standard ending.

As somebody who takes a conservative approach to buying games i.e. I buy games that I'm fairly sure I'll like, it is not often that I take the plunge on something unknown, even if it is an idolised classic like Chrono Trigger. Fortunately, this turned out to be a successful endeavour - I've learnt a lot and have some sort of context for why this holds such acclaim, and I'll admit, it was mostly a pleasant experience.

The story is well-told with some unexpected twists, such as *SPOILER* ... your main character being killed and revived much later, and one of the major antagonists joining your party. The music remains spectacular; it can't captivate me like some SNES soundtracks did when I was a young whippersnapper, but it's still right up there in my personal Hall of Fame for great game music. I also really like the seamless transitions in and out of battles.

Honestly though, I think it's too late for me to really get into the JRPG scene. This was fun, but that doesn't mean I now have a burning desire to delve into the back catalogue for Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Most of the issues I have with Chrono Trigger are issues that many people would gloss over because they would understand them intuitively. Some of you might feel this game is fairly easygoing, yet I struggled on several occasions. Some of you don't need to think about where to go, yet I got lost too often for my liking. Some of you might not have to even think about when it's the right time to use a tech or how to effectively manage everybody's hit points, yet I was guessing, being quite wasteful and probably got lucky a few times when I won a tough battle.

Basically, if I weren't such an RPG rookie, I'd enjoy Chrono Trigger more. I suppose I can't really hold that against the game.
Tom Malina
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #85 on: September 17, 2011, 02:07:15 PM »
Maybe you should try Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, which I think goes under a different title in Europe (I want to say Mystic Quest Legend but that might be Final Fantasy Adventure...). Whereas Chrono Trigger is just a more streamlined RPG, FFMQ was created as an introduction to RPGs in an attempt to get idiotic Americans into the genre.

Offline UltimatePartyBear

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #86 on: September 19, 2011, 06:13:37 PM »
The problem with that recommendation is that Mystic Quest isn't actually very good.  Unlike Chrono Trigger, which is very good indeed.  It's like saying "You tried filet mignon but still don't like red meat?  How about some puréed beef flavored baby mush?  It's even more tender, after all."

Offline Mop it up

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #87 on: September 19, 2011, 07:24:57 PM »
Yeah, I almost made a comment about how the game isn't that good, but there are people out there who like the game. But, it sounded like he was looking more for a game that eases a player into RPGs, and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest would do that better than Chrono Trigger. I also felt the music was well done, and it's probably worth playing just for that.

Offline UltimatePartyBear

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #88 on: September 19, 2011, 07:33:12 PM »
Mostly what I remember about MQ is that there was no random number generator.  Everything was based on stats alone, so every fight against a particular group of monsters played out the exact same way every time.  Same turn order, same damage from attacks.  It took a couple of tries to find the optimal solution for an encounter, and then you just repeated that until a level up changed your stats a little.  It made for the most monotonous RPG I've ever played, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #89 on: June 12, 2012, 01:52:13 PM »
UPDATE INCOMING

So it completely slipped my mind that I made this thread. One year on, I've cleared out a fair amount of the backlog, yet the list is still almost as long as it was when I started. I updated the original post with the current list and thought I'd begin by knocking off one that I'll probably continue to dip into from time to time:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Binding of Isaac

You remember in school, that one slightly weird kid who, instead of paying attention during class, would draw scenes of violence and grotesque monsters in his notebook? If that kid's mind were made into a videogame, it would probably be a lot like The Binding of Isaac. This is a twisted, twisted game - a sequence of procedurally-generated dungeons with inspirations rooted in the first Legend of Zelda, except here you play a young boy named Isaac, trapped in his basement with an assortment of truly disgusting creatures. Seriously, these are perhaps the most hideous enemy designs of any game ever - between this and Super Meat Boy, I'm starting to think that Edmund McMillen needs professional help.

If you can look past the layer of disturbed art design, what you are left with is a short but reasonably addictive dungeon crawler in which you move around and shoot monsters with your tears. At first, the game was simply a myriad of frustrations - the controls were part of the issue (the inability to shoot diagonally was particularly irksome to me), but mainly, it was the game's ridiculously obtuse nature. Over the course of a playthrough, you will come across dozens of items and there is zero indication on what any of them do. Consequently, I was dying a whole lot, and unlike the rogue-likes it has been compared to, death resets everything.

However, where the similarity to rogue-likes does apply is that it pays to be patient. If you lack patience, you will not make it. Through trial and error - mostly error - I worked out the AI routines of the enemies and gained an appreciation for the decision to forego diagonal shooting, as it forces you to take a more considered approach in clearing out a room. At the same time, I gradually figured out what items were for, how to use them in tandem, when to spend money and so on. It is not immediately gratifying, so I could absolutely understand why many people would not stick with it. With that said, I felt amazingly accomplished on my first successful playthrough.

Of course, as with nearly all randomly-generated dungeon titles, there is the occasional clunkiness with how certain enemy placements, rooms or maps are laid out. Furthermore, the combination of useful or useless items it happens to spawn is also a bit 'luck of the draw.' The Binding of Isaac will definitely not appeal to everyone, but over time, I worked out a homoeostasis with the game's system and eventually came to enjoy it because of that.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2012, 01:53:49 PM by Killer_Man_Jaro »
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #90 on: June 19, 2012, 01:49:43 PM »
Limbo

I'd be the first to tell you that I'm not exactly the most artistically-minded person you're likely to meet. You show me a piece of minimalistic art and I can try to extrapolate some way to appreciate it, but while I have some respect for the 'less is more' philosophy, at a certain point you have to draw the line. So when I read all the uproarious praise Limbo received at its release, I sort of looked at the game with raised eyebrows. Catching up with it now thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle, my suspicions were confirmed: I just don't understand what all the fuss was about. It's a short and simple 2D puzzle game that, in my experience, lost more and more of its appeal as it progressed.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am commenting on the whole game, not just the presentation, as I think the minimalist approach extends to everything about Limbo's design. I will, however, briefly address this part of the game by saying that the silhouetted visual style and low-key audio create a decent atmosphere of bleakness and hostility early on, but this effect wore off quickly. To its credit, the game maintains this aesthetic right up to the end, although that might be the issue - without any contrast, it stopped having an impact on me before too long.

And I think that, ultimately, that typifies my opinion of Limbo. It creates a strong first impression, but the simplicity and sluggish pacing caused my interest to wane over time. Despite clocking in at no more than 2 hours from start to finish, it took me 4 sittings to complete Limbo, for at multiple points, the compulsion to keep going was not there. That's not to say that the puzzles are totally dull or repetitive - on the contrary, they work within the limitations of the nameless protagonist's abilities to stay pretty varied. It's just that the game is made to be played so deliberately, and whenever it asks more of your reflexes or demands greater precision, it stumbles, because the controls and general feel of how the character moves and jumps is not immediate enough to suit these purposes.

Let's be clear here. I do not hate Limbo. However, back in 2010, this was considered a Game of the Year contender by many outlets. To be perfectly honest, I don't see it.
Tom Malina
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Offline Oblivion

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #91 on: June 19, 2012, 01:53:59 PM »
Can I steal this idea? I have a huge backlog and I need to get rid of it.

Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #92 on: June 21, 2012, 03:48:23 PM »
Botanicula

What a wonderfully weird game. Machinarium was pretty kooky, but this latest point-and-click adventure from Amanita Design cranks the oddball factor up to eleven. In the two hours that I've logged with it, I have already experienced an veritable feast of craziness. You might think that I'm playing this up for effect - in all seriousness, from what I've seen so far, this is the reason to play Botanicula.

In terms of its virtues in the adventure game genre, it may actually be somewhat of a step down from Machinarium, at least as far as intricacy or logic of the puzzles go. A heavier emphasis is placed on simply clicking everything on each screen and watching the events unfold, until something happens that contributes to you moving forward, and all puzzles more or less amount to 'find __ number of __ in this area'. In some sense, this can be viewed as a benefit, as if like me, you have played many games of this ilk, you will enjoy the momentum with which Botanicula moves.

I won't beat around the bush. This game is really an excuse to string together a series of audiovisual treats. The folks at Amanita clearly know how to choose a theme and then run wild and have loads of fun with it. There are countless interactive elements that have no bearing on the progression, but exist just to show off amusing animations and bizarre sound effects that put a smile on my face almost every time. At one point, your characters - a troop of sentient flora - have their greatest wishes granted by a genie, and of the five selectable sequences, only one of them is pertinent to the story; the rest are there to let you see and hear strange things (in a game already chock full of strange sights and sounds).
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #93 on: July 01, 2012, 05:26:13 AM »
Pullblox

At last, the deed is done: I finally cleared all levels in Pullblox (or as it is known to many of you, Pushmo) this weekend. It was no small feat, and as I slowly parsed out the solutions to the last handful, I realised what a mistake it was to go on such a hiatus with it. Pullblox is the kind of puzzle game where you need to immerse yourself in its mechanics & logic and develop a vision for creating useful block formations if you are to make any sort of consistent progress on it. If you go too long without playing it, that vision will atrophy and you will have a hard time getting a feel for the puzzles until you build it back up.

Every time I took a somewhat extended break from the game, I would do a poor job on the first level I popped into, fumbling my way slowly up this structure of blocks and more often than not reaching a point where I had no idea how to climb any higher. I would stare for a few minutes and then either come across the solution by accident or swallow my pride and skip to the next stage. But in the next level, everything would begin to make sense again. I'd start to think several moves ahead, properly account for what jumps my character could make, prepare for situations where I might need to drop down, do something then climb back up. Suddenly, I was speeding through the levels, and when I later returned to the level I skipped, it was such a cinch, I couldn't understand how I'd gotten stuck before.

Pullblox is one of those masterful puzzlers that takes one simple concept and wrings it for all its worth. After getting to grips with the basic premise, it finds numerous different ways to apply it to differently shaped structures, then layers on top a couple of new mechanics to expand the possibilities for puzzles even further. I give it my highest recommendation - if your 3DS is hooked up to the internet, this is the first piece of software you should get.

P.S. I wanted to briefly talk about the user-generated content, which is distributed through QR codes. Now I used to be as much of a QR code cynic as the next person, but having at this point filled up all 5 pages of slots for custom levels, I must admit that there is something kind of magical about scanning a picture on my laptop and all of a sudden, there it is, in my game! In some strange way, scanning in levels is almost more fun and addictive than playing them - as a general rule, the user stages are not as well put together as the ones Intelligent Systems built and most of the time, they are difficult by virtue of being absolutely colossal structures. Personally, I just like collecting really well-constructed 8-bit and 16-bit sprites.
Tom Malina
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Offline Killer_Man_Jaro

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Re: Project "Backlog Eradication" - Clearin' out the pile o' shame
« Reply #94 on: July 05, 2012, 05:45:51 PM »
Trauma Centre: New Blood

Status update: Reached chapter 3-4.

In lieu of Trauma Team, which will apparently never be released in Europe (you guys can complain about the 'Op Rainfall' trio, but at least you will eventually get them), I snapped up a copy of New Blood to keep my desire for virtual surgery in check. In certain respects, it makes noticeable advancements on its forebears, but I still sometimes get frustrated playing it, though not always for the same reasons.

If you are familiar with the Trauma Centre series, you will most likely find the opening chapter a very slow burn. After nearly an hour of the standard fare of excising tumours, removing glass fragments and manically suturing dozens of lacerations, I was feeling a little down on the game, as it seemed like it was all the same concepts being recycled again. I realise they need to teach the basics to new players, but I'd rather they were presented as a tutorial that I could skip, because that first act really dragged for me.


Thankfully, the game picked up significantly in the second chapter. Now, the operations not only have new ideas - I've installed a pacemaker, repaired a shattered ribcage and carried out skin grafts on severe burns - but they are generally more interesting and more challenging. It feels weird to say this, but playing Trauma Centre is stressful and yet I like that. Once you get past the tedium of the early operations, it puts across the tension of a surgical procedure impeccably. The best levels are the ones where you must move quickly & precisely and must be prepared to deal with sudden complications.

The operations haven't been particularly frustrating so far, but I'm sad to say that music notwithstanding, the sound design has been severely grating and I am slightly fearful that it will drive me insane before I reach the end. Voice acting has been added in New Blood, but whereas you'd think this will be a big presentational improvement, it's actually to the detriment of the game because the characters do. Not. Stop. Talking. For almost the entirety of each operation, they deliver a barrage of instructions. It is often things that I already know how to do, and because I'm regularly completing steps faster than they speak, their lines of dialogue are constantly being interrupted by new ones as they try to keep up with what I am doing. To add to that, nearly every action you carry out successfully is accompanied with a "ding" sound effect, so when you're doing a lot in rapid succession, this sound goes off again and again. This is stuff that I could really do without, and as I've started to enjoy the gameplay a great deal, I hope it doesn't get to me too badly.
Tom Malina
UK Correspondent
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"You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel."