Rate the Last Game You Finished

[der_ketzer]

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Mass Effect 2. DLC Packs & CE Extras: 5/10 for non DLC, 8/10 DLC
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Collector's Edition extras, non DLC:
+/- Art book (+) & Comic (#1 of 4 buy the other 3 to get the whole story (-))
+/- A Soundtrack (+) that only features 35 minutes of music. Buy the rest now on iTunes & Amazon.com (-)

- A 25 minute video commercial for a game I bought (ME2). Not what I expected at all.

The DLC extras:
Collector's Armour: Was by far the best armour in the game for me. I tried others but always went back to this one. I did like the look of that thing but I do understand if others don't. Reactions to this look would have been nice though.
Collector Assault Rifle: Highly overpowered. Never replaced this with something. Other ARs might have had more damage (who knows there are no Weapon stats but this one had no recoil.

M-29 Incisor Sniper Rifle: Fires 3 shots at once. Extremely overpowered. Never needed any other sniper rifle.

These items are highly overpowered and really help on higher difficulty levels.


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Cerberus Network 7.5/10 (free or 1200 Points if you bought a used copy of the game)
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This is a pack that encourages you to buy the game new. There are a lot of bits in here that are really worth the price. If you get the game in a good Steam sale it will be considerably cheaper than buying the pack on it's own.

Normandy Crash site: I nice little mission. Collect dogtags, find minerals and place a memorial site.

Zaeed - The Price of Revenge: A new teammember including an okay mission. No real dialogue after that which was a bit disappointing. Why can't I have a nice talk with the DLC crew-members?

Cerberus Armour: Never used it. Good choice for soldiers if you don't have the CE Armour.

M-22 Eviscerator Shotgun: Good Shotty for people that don't want the Firepower DLC Pack.

Arc Projector: Good heavy Weapon, I preferred another one though.

Firewalker Pack: 5 short missions that let you control the Firewalker. Interesting but you don't miss much.


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Firepower DLC Pack 160 Points 10/10
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This pack includes 5 really good guns so you will never have to choose anything else. Even the price is quite good.

M-5 Phalanx Pistol: really good pistol.

M-96 Mattock AR: Tried it once and went back to the Collectors AR.

Geth Plasma Shotgun: You can charge it up to shoot 3 projectiles but only consuming 1 bullet. Highly overpowered beast-gun. Real life-saver in many mission if ammo is rare.


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Equalizer Pack 160 Points 5/10
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I got this one for my next playthrough when I will pick a class that can actually use this pack. But even then I'm not sure if I wouldn't rather keep the Collector's Armour.

[der_ketzer]

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Kasumi: Stolen Memories, 560 Points 7/10 DLC
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A great mission that comes with a really overpowered teammember. Kasumi quickly became one of my favourites and the mission that is included is about the normal length of a loyalty mission in ME2. Maybe a little longer. Kasumi has the same problem Zaeed has though. After the mission is done there is no real conversation with her. She just sits there and spits out lines when you trigger her.
The price is fair since you really get a powerful friend here. Paying 800 Points for her would have been a stretch though. (See ME3's Day 1 DLC for that)


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Overlord, 560 Points 10/10
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I really liked Overlord. It includes several Firewalker missions (the firewalker controls worse than in the actual Firewalker missions though). And then there is the bases. One of which gives you content you cannot experience anywhere else in this game or the first one. The story was brilliant and the length was okay for the price. If you want to get one of these packs get this one.


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Lair of the Shadow Broker, 800 Points 8/10
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This DLC should have been in the game or at least a little cheaper. There is no excuse for cutting it out really. Playtime is about the same as Overlord (maybe a tiny bit longer) and you get Liara back for this mission, which is a real PLUS.
It includes some great set pieces including one that reminded me a lot of the best bit in mass Effect 1 (walking on the outside of the citadel). You can continue your romance with Liara (if you had one and don't have a new love interest) and the bonuses that you get after the mission are really worth having. This includes the only option to reassign the Squad points for your squad. A feature that would have been a must have in the main game.
Even at 8/10 a real recommendation. Even though the price is quite high.


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Arrival, 560 Points, 8/10
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Not nearly as good as Overlord but still worth the money. This adds another 2 hours to your game and gives you an alternative ending. If you wanna play for yourself what Shepard is trialled for in ME3 this is your chance. And that is exactly my problem with this pack. This should have been in the game. Close to the end. (Maybe during the decryption of the Reaper IFF).


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Mass Effect: Genesis, 320 Points / free on the PS3 in the Cerebrus Network, */10
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This really nice new intro is for players that don't own Mass Effect 1 or don't want to play through it again for the key choices. Here you can choose 6 events from the first game and how you handled them. And again I feel that this should have been in the game from the start. Especially this *feature*. No real gameplay here. Just a 15 minute movie that can change the way you experience Mass Effect 2.
I will not give this a rating because I cannot.
0/10 for cutting this essential feature out and selling it back to us later
10/10 for the intro itself which looks awesome!

[Darth Marsden]

What I want companies to do is collect all the DLC and sell it one one big pack. Do that, Bioware, and I'll buy your Mass Effect stuff. Don't, and I probably won't. Your call if you wants my money or not.

[der_ketzer]

They did it with DA:O. But then they noticed they could make a lot more money if they don't do that again.

[Darth Marsden]

Don't know why. I bought DA:O:UE. Twice. Oh well.

[GraysonDoesGames]

Fallout: New Vegas: 9/10

I was playing a another play through to fight for Caesar, I think. It has been awhile since I beat it, several months probably. Since then I've just played Madden 2012 or Battlefield 3, I really need to get a new game. I suppose The Walking Dead will be that game. :P

[der_ketzer]

Portal 2: Single Player

Well that one was enjoyable. And it didn't have an ending that destroyed my enjoyment of the game. I personally think it's too long though (funny I'd ever say something like that about a game). Taking a break when one of the major parts starts helps a lot with that. Playing it in one sitting might be painful.
I waited to play this and when I got my new PC and it couldn't run it I was heartbroken. This was the first game I tried to run on it. Only 4 months of mental pain later they finally got around to release a BIOS update so I could play it and it was worth waiting for it.
The Puzzles were not that great for 2/3 of the game. Marking the correct panels for you or giving you a wide open room with only two white surfaces. It wasn't thinking about the puzzle it was just searching for a surface at that time. The rooms in the thirdf and final segment of the game where pretty good though. And I had real fun painting everything with the Conversion Gel.

Now all I need is a Co-Op-Partner and a working microphone or I could try the challenges and the developer commentary. And there are still secrets I haven't found...

For the Single Player 9.5/10

[ryannumber1gamer]

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

Portal 2: Single Player

Well that one was enjoyable. And it didn't have an ending that destroyed my enjoyment of the game. I personally think it's too long though (funny I'd ever say something like that about a game). Taking a break when one of the major parts starts helps a lot with that. Playing it in one sitting might be painful.
I waited to play this and when I got my new PC and it couldn't run it I was heartbroken. This was the first game I tried to run on it. Only 4 months of mental pain later they finally got around to release a BIOS update so I could play it and it was worth waiting for it.
The Puzzles were not that great for 2/3 of the game. Marking the correct panels for you or giving you a wide open room with only two white surfaces. It wasn't thinking about the puzzle it was just searching for a surface at that time. The rooms in the thirdf and final segment of the game where pretty good though. And I had real fun painting everything with the Conversion Gel.

Now all I need is a Co-Op-Partner and a working microphone or I could try the challenges and the developer commentary. And there are still secrets I haven't found...

For the Single Player 9.5/10

I'll help you on co-op if you want.

[der_ketzer]

The Next Big Thing

Charming little adventure game. Difficulty: About what Sam & Max Season 1 was. playtime: 7-8 hours (30€ on Steam is definitely too much but it was free with Yesterday so it's okay).
Some of the puzzles are not really logic but are solved by the old use everything on everything trick. You always have a chart with your goals on it which is important if you take a break. Only one really badly designed puzzle that can take 100 tries to solve even if you know what to do.
Great feature: There is hints and object highlighting but these can be turned off before you start the game and turning them off actually works. (also you cannot turn them on again unless you create a new profile)

Overall: 8/10

[der_ketzer]

Yesterday

Really enjoyable adventure game that does a lot of things right and some wrong. The puzzles are about the same as in The Next Big Thing (maybe a little easier). Playtime 5 hours. Maybe even less if you are tempted by the hints function. This time there is no option to turn hints at will and object highlighting at will off (you get no hints etc. without pushing the button but it is always there tempting you). There is a nice replay scene feature that I never used.
It has this nice cellshaded / comic look and if you click on something a little box with a bigger version of it pops up in which you can examine it or do something with it.
2 things that were a bit strange: In a dialogue you will see the faces of the people talking but they only move when they say something. If they don't say anything they will not even blink. Also there is no narrator (no idea if that was on purpose or a mistake) I liked that personally in most of the cases. but in one scene there is a lot text in short time that you would wish someone was reading it so you can just watch the scene. It feels strange at the beginning when you realise that there will be nothing but the music in huge parts of the game. I wasn't used to that any more but I re-learned to enjoy that.
No illogical or plainly unfair / annoying puzzles this time. And the game is on the serious side of adventure games. So don't expect any corny jokes like in Monkey Island.

The overall experience, even though it was short, was a clear: 9/10 for me but 30€ is a bit pricy if it is for that game alone. Wait for a sale when it drops to 15€ or less.

[Chyron8472]

Psychonauts - 8/10

Good
Good story
Interesting and fun levels
Lots of collectibles
Lots of upgrade incentive for obtaining said collectables

Not So Good
Graphics are somewhat dated
Prerendered cutscenes are lower resolution (ie. fuzzier) than ingame engine graphics.

Unsure
Character models are interesting, but it's unclear whether they look the way they do on purpose or as a result of limitations of the graphics engine.

[Chyron8472]

The Blackwell Legacy - 5/10

It doesn't suck exactly, but dang is it short. Steam says I played it for 3.7 hours, and I've already beat it. It's not incredibly easy (though I wouldn't say it's difficult either); there's just not a whole lot of plot until the end of the game. I would have been annoyed had I bought the game at full price without it also being bundled with the next two.

Also, the voice-acting for Rosa makes her sound apathetic about everything, until she meets Joey after which it improves a bit.

[flesk]

Originally Posted by Chyron8472

The Blackwell LegacyIt doesn't suck exactly, but dang is it short. Steam says I played it for 3.7 hours, and I've already beat it. It's not incredibly easy (though I wouldn't say it's difficult either); there's just not a whole lot of plot until the end of the game. I would have been annoyed had I bought the game at full price without it also being bundled with the next two.

Also, the voice-acting for Rosa makes her sound apathetic about everything, until she meets Joey after which it improves a bit.

If you got the Steam bundle, that should be all four games, unless you bought it before a couple of months ago. Yeah, they're all pretty short. I've got 3.3, 2.8, 2.9 and 4.0 on record for the entire bundle. I think that's a pretty decent total length for the cost of the bundle. At least compared to The Next Big Thing and Yesterday, which I've no intention of playing until their prices are lowered.

And yeah, the voice-acting is pretty bad across all games. It sounds like dialogue just read aloud from the script, as opposed to, you know, voice acting.

[Chyron8472]

Originally Posted by flesk

If you got the Steam bundle, that should be all four games, unless you bought it before a couple of months ago.

I bought the first 3 bundled with the Indie Royale Xmas Bundle. The fourth was gifted to me.

It just sounds deceptive when I think about how the Blackwell Bundle sounds like it should be cheaper because it is a bundled series of separate games, when really it's more like buying an episodic series--and a TTG season (for example) is cheaper as a whole than it would be if one bought every episode individually.

My point is not that each game is short, but that it's deceptively short from the packaging, such that one doesn't know they really ought to buy the whole series together to get their proper money's worth.

[Darth Marsden]

Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. No rating, since I'm not really qualified to give one.

I got so lucky with this. I'm not that great at games like this at all, so the prospect of spending ages on it just to get one sodding trophy was not a pleasant thought. Now just to get that platinum!

[RetroVortex]

Getting perfect achievements on the Megadrive collection was the easiest I have ever managed to achieved.
(In fact, its the only "game" I ever managed to 100% XD)

[Chyron8472]

It seems that lately I have taken to bringing down the number of unfinished games on my Backloggery. As such, I finally took to playing episode 4 of Wallace and Gromit.

Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures - 7/10

Tales of Monkey Island and Sam & Max, they are not. But these are still pretty good episodes. They have very little story tying them together (which is not negative in this case) and, as an American, the dry British humor is rather lost on me, but I still will say that each episode is solid.

On a side note, I would not recommend ordering the DVD from TTG, as I have been told that the episodes on the disc use online activation (same as the downloads) and all the extras are already available online for free. However, I would still recommend buying the episodes from Steam or else just the downloads from the Telltale Store.

If you consider that in fact that each episode is effectively $5, it's well worth the money spent.

[Chyron8472]

Blackwell Unbound; The Blackwell Convergence; The Blackwell Deception.

The Blackwell games do feel more like episodes in a game series than individual adventure games. That being said, each successive game in the series is longer than the previous one. While The Blackwell Legacy is extremely short, The Blackwell Deception is more than adequate in length for an standalone game. Also, Deception ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I hope they make more and eventually wrap up the story.

I'm not saying the games are not recommended. I'm saying if you're going to buy them, buy them all.

[der_ketzer]

Fallout 3 - GOTY
Oh my this is a hard one. The base game without the Addons was just great, took 48 hours to complete and what a fun ride it was! Once you get used to the world it already grabbed you and will not let you go until you finished the game. The main game gets a full 10/10


But now to the hard part: The DLC packs. I'm actually glad I didn't pay for every one of them but got them on sale in this GOTY. These are strange for various reasons.
° they unbalance the game. There are new powerful guns, a lot of ammo, armor (including the chance to learn the power armor skill early, al ot of healing items!) thank god I played them all after the main game was finished.

° Some of them are filled with bugs.

° Strange Gameplay

° they added another 20 hours of gameplay to the game. Some of that was stretched by searching for collectibles or finding all locations in Point Lookout. I wanted all the achievements and I got them

Point Lookout: That one had a nice story even though I hated the "trippy" sequence a lot. But hey I could go around and kill these druggies after everything was finished so: no grudges! Annoying achievement: find all locations. Why? because the map is absolutely bugged out in large portions of the DLC-area. 8/10


Mothership Zeta
It had a horrible collect all logs achievement but was rather good otherwise. Length was about 6 hours. 6 hours you couldn't return to the wasteland that is. Also it ponied me. So many ponies. Ahhhhhhhh. Also: you get a ton of healing items and some great Energy Weapons with tons of ammo.9/10


Operation Anchorage
My god am I glad this one wasn't any longer. Horrible COD gameplay (I ran around with the sniper rifle and never used VATS. It was a turture for me tbh. Also you get the Power Armor perk from this DLC and an armor to put on which would really unbalance the game if you do this quest early on. There were collectibles but no achievement to get so I didn't care for them too much. 2/10


The Pitt
Well that one was a great experience from start to finish. Even the collectibles achievement was okay but I needed a mod for the last of the ingots. Story was great and it was overall free of bugs, but seems to have a nasty one on the 360. Play this and steal a baby! 10/10


Broken Steel
That one has the advantage that it raises the maximum level to 30. Otherwise I would say it isn't that great really. It can only be played if you survive the end of the game. It will give you a chance to see how your decision at the end worked out etc.
Even though I enjoyed it more than Anchorage I was actually looking forward to it finally being over. Also I would have wished for a few better Perks from level 21-30. the ones from the earlier levels just were a lot more useful.
Also I got stuck in several places during these missions and some of the enemies bugged out. And thenb they just throw everything on you and it's finally over. 7/10

[Gman5852]

Gotham City Imposters

I haven't completed the game, but the game thinks so.

Stupid GFWL "features" prevent me from finding a single match in weeks.

The game itself is a great one, but you won't be playing it with the matchmaking system it currently has.