I finally caved and bought PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on Steam. This is my first hour with the game, previously having only watched footage of it from Giant Bomb, Austin Walker and Patrick Klepek, and random videos shared on Twitter. I don't do so well, even managing to be the first person killed in a game. How embarrassing! I've gotten better, though. That chicken dinner will one day be mine...
My girlfriend is upstairs doing her homework. In a little bit, I'll sit next to her and play Shadow of the Colossus HD as she finishes. E3 is soon and I want to play through The Last Guardian beforehand, but I figured I should play the first two games in the "Trico" trilogy first. I beat Ico HD yesterday, my first time playing through the game, and I originally beat Shadow of the Colossus back in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. It became one of my favorite games (and the soundtrack is one of the best of all time), so I look forward playing it at a higher resolution and stable framerate. A little while ago I loaded it up while my girlfriend was working next to me, just to do something, and I ended up killing the first three colossi. It's still a fantastic experience that I've yet to see matched.
It's June 1, and I wanted to write something. It's going to be a big month. There's E3, which I mentioned earlier, in which my girlfriend and I got tickets to go see Sony's conference at a theater, an event I've loved going to for the past three years. It'll be the first time I share it with somebody. My 29th birthday will be less than two weeks after that. I'll have one year until 30, something I'm not exactly looking forward to. I have what I call Bad Baby Brain, but what others call ADHD, depression, etc., and it causes me to not do a lot of the things I want to do. But I am getting better, slowly, and I am hoping to have this month be an example of what things look like when I actually, you know, do stuff. We'll see how that goes, though. The first of every month has always been a false start with me. "A new month, a new beginning!" which lasts a few days until I go back to the same old routine of poor social media use and napping.
Wait, I wanted this to be positive! E3 is soon! It's one of the best times of the year! In the words of Roland from Borderlands, "It's like Christmas!" I call it Second Christmas, actually. It makes me happy, gets me inspired, and it's just a great time, especially with all those fantastic gifs people end up making. I usually use it as an excuse to eat like crap, too, but I think I'll just stick to having some popcorn this year.
So in the interest of staying positive, I want to talk about what I have been working on and what I would like to start on this month. I beat and recorded my entire playthroughs of Nier and Nier: Automata, and want to make detailed videos about my experience with those. That's actually one of the reasons I am playing through the Trico trilogy, is because I definitely see similarities with those games. Once I have footage of Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian, I'll get to editing. I also want to officially announce my other YouTube channel, Pure Gameplay, after I spruce it some more and get more complete playthroughs uploaded. I'm also going to focus on selling some of my belongings that I no longer feel the need to keep around, which I'll use to take care of all my credit cards before all the 0% APR windows end. This will mostly consist of my comic book collection, as the vast majority of them I could probably get digitally, and they take up a lot of space and aren't easy to move around. I want to read through each one before I get rid of them, though, so I'll probably be talking about comics a lot on Twitter and such. I especially want to take pictures of some of my favorite ads that I come across, like those old "nerd gets sand kicked in his face by a buff dude at the beach and then gets buff himself and gets revenge" ones that used to appear a lot.
Other things I would like to do: redesign website, optimize YouTube channel, finish YouTube school, and more!
My girlfriend is about to be done with dinner. We just started Fargo (the TV show) since I finally saw the movie the other day (which is great), so maybe we will do that. And then it's time to take down some colossi.
Talk to you soon.
Charles and Heather do their best to satisfy the hunger of their robot patrons in VR The Diner Duo, a virtual-reality cooking game for the HTC Vive. We are playing co-op and go through the first six levels.
I talk about GameFly and other miscellaneous topics as I walk with the doggies to check the mail.
#1 - Final Fantasy XV
#2 - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
#3 - The Brookhaven Experiment
#4 - The Lab
The only other 2016 release I beat was TrumPiñata, but there's no way I'm putting that atrocious cash grab in a "Top Games of 2016" list.
1. It had to come out in 2016.
2. I had to beat it.
Every year, NeoGAF has a 52 games challenge, in which you have to beat 52 new games before the start of the next year. There is also a movie and book equivalent, in which you have to read 50 new books and watch 50 new movies. These challenges provide that extra motivation to do/finish the things you already wanted to anyway and can lead you to checking out stuff you otherwise may not have (this is especially true with books).
Once again, I didn't even come close to completing the challenge, beating only one more game than I did in 2015.
Here are the 19 games I beat in 2016:
Police Trainer (Arcade)
The House of the Dead (Arcade)
Oh...Sir! (PC)
Mount Your Friends (PC)
Life is Strange (PC) - April 1
Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One) - April 16
Devil's Third (Wii U) - April 19
The Lab (HTC Vive) - April 26
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (The Nathan Drake Collection) (PS4) - May 13
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (The Nathan Drake Collection) (PS4) - May 23
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (The Nathan Drake Collection) (PS4) - May 28
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) - June 9
The Brookhaven Experiment (HTC Vive) - July 18
TrumPiñata (HTC Vive) - July 22
Titanfall (Xbox One) - October 2
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4) - October 10
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (PS4) - October 12
Platinum Demo - Final Fantasy XV (PS4) - November 29
Final Fantasy XV (PS4 Pro) - December 12
We'll see if I fare better in 2017.
#1 - Batman: Arkham Knight
#2 - Life is Strange
#3 - Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae
#4 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
#5 - Undertale
#6 - Halo 5: Guardians
#7 - Until Dawn
#8 - Star Wars Battlefront
#9 - Adventure Time: Magic Man's Head Games
#10 - Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection
The other three 2015 releases I beat were Mortal Kombat X Mobile, Devil's Third, and Oh...Sir!. Even though The Nathan Drake Collection contains the first three Uncharted games remastered for the PlayStation 4, I didn't feel right putting any of those other three above it. I also had a great time replaying all those games right before playing Uncharted 4.
1. It had to come out in 2015.
2. I had to beat it.
#1 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
#2 - Nidhogg
#3 - Mount Your Friends
#4 - Destiny
I only beat four games that came out in 2014, so this is my list by default. I doubt Destiny would make any "Top" list of mine otherwise.
1. It had to come out in 2014.
2. I had to beat it.
2014 was another year where I intended to do "Best of" categories like I did in 2012, but I never actually did any. I did take some notes for potential awards and nominees a couple of years ago, however:
Best DLC: The Last of Us: Left Behind
Best Gameplay Sequence: Exploring the mall with Riley, The Last of Us: Left Behind
Best Re-Release: The Last of Us Remastered
Best Music Video: Turn Down for What by DJ Snake & Lil Jon
Man Crush: Troy Baker
#1 - The Last of Us
#2 - Grand Theft Auto V
#3 - BioShock Infinite
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Saints Row IV
Gone Home
Dead Rising 3
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
The Stanley Parable
Beyond: Two Souls
Everything after BioShock Infinite above isn't officially ordered. Below are the rest of the 2013 releases I beat until February 2016. They are also not officially ordered:
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Gunpoint
Papers, Please
Ryse: Son of Rome
DmC Devil May Cry
Knack
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death
1. It had to come out in 2013.
2. I had to beat it.
Back in 2013, I had intended to do a full "Best of" blowout like I did in 2012, but I never got around to it except for a few:
Best Unlockable Achievement
Best 2012 Game
Fluffiest Booty
Favorite Concept Art
Below are the notes I took as I was planning them. I haven't edited this since, so some stuff may be missing, and some stuff maybe shouldn't be there. These are just ideas I was working on along with some nominees for the rest of the categories:
Best Ending: The Last of Us; BioShock Infinite; Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Best Ending Credits: Saints Row IV; Knack
Best Writing: The Last of Us; BioShock Infinite; Grand Theft Auto V; The Stanley Parable; Gone Home
Best Music: BioShock Infinite; The Last of Us; Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons; Gone Home
Best Graphics: The Last of Us; Grand Theft Auto V; Super Mario 3D World; Beyond: Two Souls; Dead Rising 3; Ryse: Son of Rome
Best Use of Cussing/Foul Language: The Last of Us; Grand Theft Auto V; Saints Row IV
Worst Ending: Killzone: Shadow Fall; Call of Duty: Ghosts
Best Narration: The Stanley Parable; Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Best Male Performance: Troy Baker as Joel (The Last of Us); Nolan North as David (The Last of Us); Gerald "Slink" Johnson as Lamar Davis (Grand Theft Auto V); Steven Ogg as Trevor (Grand Theft Auto V); Ned Luke as Michael (Grand Theft Auto V)
Best Female Performance: Ashley Johnson as Ellie (The Last of Us); Courtnee Draper as Elizabeth (BioShock Infinite); Annie Wersching as Tess (The Last of Us); Sarah Grayson as Sam (Gone Home)
Best Art Direction: BioShock Infinite; Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons; The Last of Us; Papers, Please
Best Gameplay Sequence: Burying your brother in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Best Theme Song: Papers, Please
Best Non-Playable Character: Jorji (Papers, Please); Lamar Davis (Grand Theft Auto V)
Best Game of Glory to Arstotzka: Papers, Please
Best Textures: Gone Home; Killzone: Shadow Fall
Best Achievements: The Stanley Parable
Best Love Story: Gone Home
Best Use of Nudity: Papers, Please; Saints Row IV
Best Boss Battle of 2013: Bob Bargas, DmC Devil May Cry; David, The Last of Us
Best Pores: Dead Rising 3; Ryse: Son of Rome
Best Twist: Rapture, BioShock Infinite; Annie being Chuck Greene's daughter, Dead Rising 3
Best Co-op: Dead Rising 3; Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Best Late Title Card: Call of Duty: Ghosts
Game I died the most in: Knack
Best Use of Physics: Knack
Best Reflections: Knack
Man Crush - Troy Baker
Best DLC - Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep (Borderlands 2)
Every year, NeoGAF has a 52 games challenge, in which you have to beat 52 new games before the start of the next year. There is also a movie and book equivalent, in which you have to read 50 new books and watch 50 new movies. These challenges provide that extra motivation to do/finish the things you already wanted to anyway and can lead you to checking out stuff you otherwise may not have (this is especially true with books).
I didn't even come close to completing the challenge, beating only 18 games during the entirety of 2015.
My ratings are done on a 5-star scale (no halfsies). I didn't rate all the games I beat for 2015.
★ - Hated it
★★ - Disliked it
★★★ - Liked/enjoyed/didn't actively dislike it
★★★★ - Really liked it
★★★★★ - Loved it
For games, I sometimes wrote a sentence or two about my thoughts and experiences, which are included here. I also include about how many hours it took me to complete some games.
Here are the 18 games I beat in 2015:
Game 1: Knack - ~10 hours - ★★★
Longer and more challenging than I expected, Knack was an enjoyable action-platformer that felt very much like something from the creator of Crash Bandicoot.
Game 2: Depression Quest - ~3 hours - ★★★★★
A very accurate portrayal of depression that hit a bit closer than I expected, Depression Quest is an important experience that those who wish to know more about the illness should play.
Game 3: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist - ~21 hours - ★★★★★
Much better and truer to Splinter Cell than what I was initially led to believe, Blacklist is a great addition to the franchise that allows a lot customization and freedom in how to handle situations. The co-op, as always, was the best part of the experience for me. I completed all the 4E missions including the DLC with random partners.
Game 4: Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae - ~5 hours - ★★★★★
Game 5: Borderlands 2 - ~83 hours - ★★★★
I played the entirety of this game and all of its story DLC on co-op with my friend Sean. We begun on August 23rd, 2014 and just finished up everything on March 27th, 2015. An overall enjoyable game that can get tedious at times, we ended up ignoring most of the enemies near the end as we were so over-leveled by that point it didn't matter. Tiny Tina is the best.
Game 6: Ryse: Son of Rome - ~10 hours - ★★★★
Game 7: Mortal Kombat X (iOS) - ★★★
Game 8: Batman: Arkham Knight (PC) - ★★★★★
A fantastic game all around, and probably the most technically impressive I have played to date (July 25th, 2015). Really liked the story, and the writing for one character in particular was top notch. Game of the Year contender for sure. Oh, and I liked the Batmobile!
Game 9: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD (PS3) - ★★★★★
Game 10: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD (PS3) - ★★★★★
Game 11: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PC) - ★★★★★
Game 12: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PC)
Game 13: Metal Gear HD (PS3) - ★★★
Game 14: Resident Evil 5 (PC) - ★★★★★
Game 15: Until Dawn (PS4)
Game 16: Star Wars Battlefront (PS4)
Game 17: Adventure Time: Magic Man's Head Games (Gear VR)
Game 18: Nidhogg (PC)
