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Rise of the Triad: Dark War is an okay FPS. On the positive side, it has a lot of goofy charm with things like selectable characters, probably the best god mode ever done in an action game, a dog mode in which you transform into an invulnerable dog, and the Excalibat, a melee weapon that was probably swiped from the Mage comics. I think this was also the first game in which you could dual-wield pistols to feel like Chow Yun Fat. Part of my play time was extended because whenever I went into dog mode, my dogs would get weirded out by the barking coming from the speakers and I'd have to calm them down before moving along :p

The problem is that the game's level and enemy design aren't correspondingly interesting. The enemies especially are repetitive and, even worse, they're all bullet sponges to one degree or another, so a large chunk of your time playing is going to be spending 5 to 10 seconds just holding down the fire button until the guy you're aiming at finally drops. Those seconds add up really fast. The weapon selection is also not very interesting - pistols, machine gun (each with infinite ammo, which is needed because of the bullet sponge factor), and a few rocket launcher variations.

I'm glad I finished it but I also can't see myself playing it again any time soon. It might be interesting to see if the remake (why a remake and not a sequel?) fixes any of its issues.
Puzzle Quest 2

Started out addicting, but became really repetitive. Too often fighting the same enemies over and over. By the last level I just ignored all the guarded chests and went directly to the boss.

Really, not as good as Puzzle Quest 1 or even Puzzle Kingdoms.

Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey

Basically a Word Puzzle Quest, though no story to speak off besides a few cutscenes. It's rather fun, and I'll probably try to get all the Stars in the campaign now. Maybe I'll try the now unlocked higher difficulty, or maybe not.
Post edited May 26, 2015 by kalirion
Titanfall.
You can't finish it but holy shit is it fun to play.
Overhyped,yes but still one of the best FPS I've played in a long time.
I finished Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World just a couple of hours ago. I love turn-based RPGs and this one was really fun.
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP)

I often say that I cannot suffer JRPGs, mostly because they usually blend a shallow, repetitive and full of grinding gameplay with a childish, stereotyped if not even outright idiotic storyline.
Final Fantasy Tactics tries very hard to be something different, and it partially succeeds – though it often takes a wrong, wrong path.

Despite what the name seems to imply, the game is a combat-heavy RPG through and through, with little to no tactics involved and playing just like your average Final fantasy, only in square grid maps: as the young Ramza Beowulve, you will lead a small band of fighters trying to find a solution to the brutal state of civil war their country, Ivalice, has been facing for a while.
Each member of the unit can switch to several different classes (many of which will be surely well known to fans, such as the Evoker or the Dragoon), each one with its own peculiarities, strengths and weaknesses, half based on magic and half on direct combat; each time characters make an action, they are rewarded with both Exp (for their “natural” level) and with JP, needed to advance in the mastery of the class they are using and to purchase new class-specific skills, usable in combination with those of the others.
In theory, this wide variety in both “jobs” and abilities could be a great element to add depth to the title; in practice, it has been so badly implemented to make me want to scream.
Much to my time's damage, the classes are not freely usable since the beginning, and neither there are unlocked at certain point in the story; to use them, you have to fulfill the insane requirements presented in this skill three, process that requires HOURS AND HOURS of pointless grinding. Why in the Nine Hells should I need to level up six classes to half of their potential just to be able to unlock the samurai? I don't think that the legendary Japanese warriors needed to train as squires, archers, thieves, knights, monks and dragoons to be able to serve their lord.
To further worsen things, know that the classes will grow painfully slow, forcing you to repeat again and again the already annoying and way too frequent random encounters in the same maps, until you will hate them so much that you will want to just reset the game and hope the chances allow you to avoid the fight rather than go trough the same identical battle once again.
By the way, this is juts an illusory solution: the port is so unbelievably badly implemented that resetting it would require more than two minutes of wait, making the fight actually faster than the other solution. I'm dead serious about this. Also, each time a spell is cast, the framerate drops below 10. If I were to guess a number, I would say that it reached 3 (I actually tried to count them) when conjuring monsters.

The game is also full of awful and illogical choices. For example, each time you encounter enemies, you are allowed to position your men on the grid before the fight starts; too bad that you will only see grey squares, having no idea of where you will appear and what the height of the ground is. I often accidentally positioned my mages right in front of enemy knights, and my archers right behind a wall. After all, blindness is the most useful trait in a general, isn't it?
Also, the magic system is dreadful, being tied almost completely on luck: the effectiveness of a spell depends on the time of the day, the month, the zodiac sign of both the caster and the target, their faith and their bravery... and the chances of a spell working are already extremely low by default. If you want the numbers, know that I had the same mage having a 30% chance of success on a knight and the 89% on his companion (also a knight) right behind for no apparent reason (their equipment was the same). This makes no sense, especially considering that in a tactic game you have to... you know... be able to deploy a tactic, something that a person can do only if the outcomes of an action are predictable -something that never happens here.
Also, you can pre-emptively see the effectiveness of your magic only when you point a target; if you are using an area of effect spell, you are blind – AGAIN!

As if this was still not enough, some of the most important battles are so unbalanced to force you to abuse the system. For example, in the middle of the game you are thrown in a one-on-one duel, with a knight much faster, stronger and resilient than you. If you are lucky enough to beat him, you will be surrounded by lots of angry, high-level monsters that will destroy your entire party (came to help in the meantime) in a single turn. You only chance to win is to keep on using ability boosts and healing yourself until you reach the maximum speed and strength before defeating the knight, so that you can have three or more turns in a row to kill half the spawn enemies in one hit.
Another time, an enemy twice as fast as you has an ability to instantly break your armour and weapon with 100% possibility of success... without any warning and right before the final battle, when you cannot go back to a shop to replace the lost items.
I don't know if I have ever seen a worst design.

The port fixed none of the problems, deciding instead to add useless cameos (like Cloud form FF7 or Blathier from FF12) and to further increase the requirement to unlock classes.

At least, the story is good: I wasn't expecting a narrative based on social struggle, violence, betrayal, intrigue, foul magic, heresy, anti-clericalism, suffering and murder.
It finally goes beyond the usual “Good vs Evil” and “Chosen Prepubescent Whiny Heroes Save the World” tropes, with several well thought characters, and an overall good writing, and be sure that it is very welcome for that.
The developers commendably -and also quite bravely, considering that this is a game that openly attacks a poorly disguised Catholic Church (Catholic in everything but the name). You need to have guts for that- tried to bring some mature themes into the genre, setting their game apart from the standards, and Beliar knows how much Japanese games need it.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is so flawed to ruin the overall experience, submerging in the mud what could have been a real wave of light in the dark.
It pains me to say it, since I recognize that the game ha been crafted with much love and effort with the precise intent to be different, but I really cannot recommend it unless you are a masochist with way too much free time to waste on grinding, infinite loading times and tens of retries due to unfair design.
Faster Than Light. Going to mark this as finished even though I'll be playing through again. And again. And again. But I made it to the end boss and almost got through without dying, but alas I got my ass kicked. Tough game, fun game, addictive game. Highly recommended to anyone that hasn't tried this one yet.

Full List
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Enebias: Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP)
You actually finished it. I guess congratulations are in order :)

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Enebias: Also, each time a spell is cast, the framerate drops below 10. If I were to guess a number, I would say that it reached 3 (I actually tried to count them) when conjuring monsters.
I'm sure you're aware, but this is a well-known bug. It even gets a mention on the game's Wikipedia page. A very good reason to consider playing the original.
Paper Sorcerer
I really had a great time with this game. It certainly isn't perfect (the puzzles are too easy) and has a several bugs (like the chessdoor puzzle and the missing coral), but it's an atmopheric and addictive dungeon crawler with a great artstyle, a nice soundtrack (even if I can see why some people don't like it) and a simple, but well-told story.

I completed the game on normal difficulty (it took me about 19 hours) and my party consisted of the sorcerer, the vampire, the minotaur and the goblin. I know that most people dislike the goblin, but for me it was my favourite character. If you equip him well and level him up properly, he is quite mighty and even if his skills don't do mage damage, they are among the most useful ones for the party.

I think I will replay the game in the future on another difficulty and with another party.

A big thank you goes to toxicTom who gifted me the game!!!

Complete list of finished games in 2015
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Coelocanth: Faster Than Light. Going to mark this as finished even though I'll be playing through again. And again. And again. But I made it to the end boss and almost got through without dying, but alas I got my ass kicked.
It's finished even though you didn't win and you are still going to replay it. Repeatedly no less. 0__o

Are you playing with Advanced Edition content or without?
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hyperagathon: You actually finished it. I guess congratulations are in order :)
Thank you! XD
I needed months to do it (I think I started it in November 2014), and it has been quite a pain. The temptation to quit it was strong (especially after the specific battle I mentioned), but my will was ultimately stronger!
Now I can proudly display this as a real gaming achievement!

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hyperagathon: I'm sure you're aware, but this is a well-known bug. It even gets a mention on the game's Wikipedia page. A very good reason to consider playing the original.
If possible I like to always play the original, especially considering the renowedly abysmal quality of S-E ports... yet, I never owned a Playstation, neither the original nor the others. Actually, I borrowed the PSP and the game from a friend claiming that the game was awesome.
Anyway, to all the interested readers: if you really want to tackle FFT, I recommend you to follow hyperagathon's suggestion and play the original, if possible.
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hyperagathon: You actually finished it. I guess congratulations are in order :)
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Enebias: Thank you! XD
I needed months to do it (I think I started it in November 2014), and it has been quite a pain. The temptation to quit it was strong (especially after the specific battle I mentioned), but my will was ultimately stronger!
Now I can proudly display this as a real gaming achievement!

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hyperagathon: I'm sure you're aware, but this is a well-known bug. It even gets a mention on the game's Wikipedia page. A very good reason to consider playing the original.
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Enebias: If possible I like to always play the original, especially considering the renowedly abysmal quality of S-E ports... yet, I never owned a Playstation, neither the original nor the others. Actually, I borrowed the PSP and the game from a friend claiming that the game was awesome.
Anyway, to all the interested readers: if you really want to tackle FFT, I recommend you to follow hyperagathon's suggestion and play the original, if possible.
I played the Gameboy Advance version, is that allowed? :P
I started playing Waking Mars a while ago but my computer had problems and I lost all my progress on it. So now with my rebuilt computer (which will likely require some updating soon), I finally got back to it. As it turns out I was almost done with it before - it's not a very long game.

I guess you could call it a Metroid-type game with the twist that your character is a nonviolent scientist. You advance in the game by finding alien seeds of various types in this Martian cavern you're exploring and planting them. Once you hit a certain threshold of thriving biomass, doors open up and you can move to the next chamber.

The planting angle is very interesting at first but it starts getting tedious as you move along, and the mechanics of it are such that it never really changes or evolves that much, so what you're doing at the end of the game is largely what you're doing at the beginning, with little variation in tactics or puzzle-solving required. I'm thinking part of the reason it's so simplistic is that this appears to have been a mobile game that was also put on PC.

The story is decent. It's pretty serious sci-fi by video gaming standards. Graphics are fine. Controlling it with a gamepad mostly worked out okay for me. I'd say it's a nice game to check out if you got it in a bundle or on sale, but not quite a must-play that everyone needs to seek out immediately.
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omega64: I played the Gameboy Advance version, is that allowed? :P
If I recall correctly, there are two Final Fantasy Tactics for gameboy advance, and both are different games than the one I'm talking about.
I have no idea of how they could compare, since I have never played them! :)
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omega64: I played the Gameboy Advance version, is that allowed? :P
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Enebias: If I recall correctly, there are two Final Fantasy Tactics for gameboy advance, and both are different games than the one I'm talking about.
I have no idea of how they could compare, since I have never played them! :)
Two? I think it's just FFT: Advance for the Gameboy, and the other one is a sequel for the DS. Anyway, Advance is a completely different game. Well, as much as a spin-off with similar mechanics can be called "completely" different.
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omega64: I played the Gameboy Advance version, is that allowed? :P
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Enebias: If I recall correctly, there are two Final Fantasy Tactics for gameboy advance, and both are different games than the one I'm talking about.
I have no idea of how they could compare, since I have never played them! :)
Really? xD
I wouldn't expect 2 games to have the exact same name even though they're different. :/