2014 Gaming Summary

One thing I love about games are the stats that accumulate as you play. In that spirit, here's some things I did in gaming this year.

Games
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Ecolibrium
Metrico
Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark
Titan Attacks
Escape Plan
The Binding of Isaac
Luftrausers
PlayStation All-stars Battle Royal (Vita platinum)
The Walking Dead (Vita platinum)
Portal 2
Batman Arkham City
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Velocity 2X
Wipeout 2048
Fez
Proteus
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Rayman Legends (Platinum)
Murumasa Rebirth
Paint Park Plus
The Wolf Among Us (Platinum)
Madden NFL 13
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Platinum)
Terraria
Gravity Rush
Pro Evolution Soccer 2014
Limbo
Surge Deluxe
PixelJunk Shooter
Rayman Origins (Vita Platinum)
Jurassic Park: The Game
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Frobisher Says
Welcome Park
Flower (Vita)
Jetpack Joyride
Velocity Ultra
Tales of Monkey Island
Soul Sacrifice
Back to the Future: The Game
Eat Them!
DMC Devil May Cry
CSI Final Conspiracy (Platinum)
Lone Survivor (Platinum)
Thomas Was Alone
Metro: Last Light (Platinum)
Remember Me (Platinum)
Flow
Borderlands 2 (Platinum)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Favorite games: Lone Survivor, The Wolf Among Us
Least favorite: PixelJunk Shooter, Soul Sacrifice

Trophies
Bronze: 894
Silver: 344
Gold: 78
Platinum: 13
Total trophies earned: 1,329

Hardest/Most Time Consuming trophy earned: Truly awesome! (Rayman Legends)

Rarest trophy: 2.25% Ultra Rare, Seen It All Pilot all 125 Rauser combinations (Luftrausers)

Most common trophy: 99.99% Common, Step Into HD, Play any event in the HD Campaign (Wipeout HD)

All in all, it was a good year for me in gaming. I wish I had completed more games--especially AC: Brotherhood and Arkham City--but all in all I think I did pretty well, considering my crazy schedule of the last few months. In 2015, I hope to play more games, get more trophies, and have even more fun than 2014. Off we go!

All Star Platinum #40

I just completed Arcade Mode on PlayStation All Stars Battle Royal with Spike, finishing the last bronze trophy and nailing my 40th platinum to the wall. Overall, as I've written, fighting games aren't really my thing, but this one was better than most--probably because it is pretty simple to learn and actually was fun. It isn't a perfect game, though. The arcade in particular got a bit repetitive, especially with the characters that either seem weaker or are harder to master. My least favorite characters were Parappa, Nariko and Sly Cooper, mostly because their regular attacks are weak and their
Super attacks are almost useless. My favorite characters were Radec, Spike, and Dante. Kratos is good too.

The platinum is fairly easy and mostly fun. I have to do it all over again for the PS3, too! All right!

OVERALL: 7
Platinum difficulty: 4
Platinum enjoyability: 6

Twice Platinummed (#39)

Finished TWD on the Vita today. Good Lord, the ending is so [spoiler-free adjective]! I love double platinuming games. I'm going to just link to the first time I finished it, on my previous blog, because my feelings are the same now. Although this time, I think I'm closer to 3,700 trophies. Wow...

Platinum 38: Legendary

 

After four months of daily and weekly challenges, I finally got to the 11th Level of Awesomeness, Truly Awesome!, and the Legendary platinum trophy for Rayman Legends. I've written before on the superb platforming experience of the last two Rayman games. They rival the classic perfection of Nintendo's platformers. Incredibly fun, absolutely gorgeous, with eye-popping setpieces and mind-bending platforming sections, this is one of the best games I've ever played. Can't recommend it strongly enough. I hope Ubisoft is working on another sequel, because I will eat that up. The challenge trophy was kind of absurd; even collecting mostly gold cups, it still took me weeks and weeks to get that final ranking. Time consuming, for sure, but fortunately the experience is so fun that it wasn't really that bad. All in all, I am very pleased to add this platinum to my collection, and look forward to getting the Vita version and doing it all over again. It is that good.

Rayman Legends Overall:  9/10

Platinum Difficulty: 9/10

Platinum Enjoyability: 9/10

The Wolf Among Us Platinum

I really enjoyed this latest episodic series from Telltale. The story was engrossing, the characters interesting, and the point and click adventure style is much more refined than TWD. It earns its hard Mature rating without a doubt; the violence is unforgiving and brutal, and I've rarely heard as many obscenities in a game before. They don't pull any punches here, and although it goes over the top at times, it all adds up to make an unforgettable, gritty and hardcore experience. The mystery built fairly well across every episode, especially the first three. In Sheep's Clothing was a little flat, overall. I did have some problems with the final episode, which I thought was the weakest of the series. The fight with Mary wasn't very satisfying, and the trial of the Crooked Man seemed strange. Maybe I just wasn't prepared for it, but I didn't realize I was going to have to argue the Crooked Man's guilt before Fabletown. It was a tough sell. The last scene was intriguing, though, and of course left us on a cliffhanger--ostensibly for a second season.

I will happily play it again when it drops on the Vita, and I will definitely play a second season. The few hiccups and missteps it took in no way took away from the overall experience of the game. I really enjoyed Bigby and his rocky relationship with nearly everyone else in Fabletown. The acting was really top notch, and the graphic novel style of the graphics was fantastic. I'm looking forward to playing through a second time with a different approach.

8/10

Dead Space: Martyr

I read a Dead Space spin off novel this week, Dead Space: Martyr. I am a huge fan of the Dead Space series and have played every game so far (the iOS tablet version excepted) and seen both of the animated movies. So I have been looking forward to checking out the books for a while now.

(Spoilers and Dead Space jargon ahead)

Martyr is about the discovery of the Black Marker on Earth, the resulting first recorded necromorph outbreak, and the origins of the Church of Unitology. Michael Altman, who in the games is worshipped by the Unitologists as a prophet/god, is the geophysicist at first studying the Marker, then finally trying to destroy it. I never realized while playing the games that Altman was actually against Unitology, that EarthGov plotted his death as a way to manipulate the people. It is an interesting origins story; probably only worth the read for die hard fans of the franchise, though. The writing isn't fantastic, merely adequate; about average for a video game spinoff novel. It reminded me of one of the Mass Effect novels I've read. Very interesting for a DS fan, though. Makes me want to play through the games again.

Platinum #36

Completed Uncharted: Golden Abyss in just under two weeks. The bulk of the trophies are typical Uncharted fare; weapon kills, treasure collection, hand to hand combat, and the hard and crushing playthroughs. There were also a couple Vita specific trophies, like using the back touchpad to climb a rope, and finally the new addition to the trophy family were the pain in the butt bounty trophies. None were super difficult, though, and I am pleased to have all 4 Uncharted platinums in my collection now.

Golden Abyss is probably the weakest game in the franchise, but undoubtedly one of the best the Vita currently has to offer. I found myself continuously impressed at the animations, character detail, overall visuals and size of the levels. It's pretty incredible what the Vita can do in terms of having power. The story was merely all right, and the dialogue ran from acceptable to silly. My favorite parts were the chapters that included Sully. They made me want to play the console games again, honestly. Overall, a very enjoyable Vita experience and one I easily recommend to series fans.

Enjoyability: 7/10
Platinum difficulty: 3/10