Lurker > Bartzyx

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/10/21 10:03:27 AM
#288
#84 Binary Domain (Playstation 3, 2012)

During the early parts of the last decade, there were a lot of third-person shooters coming out of Japan. Binary Domain was one of the last games in that wave, and I think the best one that I played. Mostly because of its engaging story.



You play this near-future game as a guy named Dan who, with his childhood friend Big Bo (pictured above), takes a trip to Tokyo that goes terribly wrong. Not having seen each other since college, the two Americans reunite just before Big Bo's wedding. What should have been a week of sightseeing and irresponsible sex takes a hard left turn when Japan is overrun by killer robots.

They find themselves drafted into a rag-tag resistance movement led by a French combat android named Cain. Big Bo is eager to help out (his soon-to-be in-laws are from Japan), but Dan, whose parents were killed in a freak android malfunction accident, is unwilling to report to another android. So unknown to Dan, Big Bo outfits Cain in a female fleshsuit and introduces Cain to Dan as "Faye." You can guess what happens next, yup, big wartime romance story and Dan then eventually has to decide if he wants to fuck a robot.



But the gameplay part of Binary Domain is fun too. The gimmick with this game is the artificial intelligence that uses a microphone to let you issue commands to the other characters. Well, I didn't try that so I can't tell you if it's any goodyou can just use the controller for commands instead. There is a lot of banter during combat and people let you know if they need help and you can ask for help and so on. There are crazy moments and big explosions and stuff. Also the way you treat and talk to your allies affects the story and the ending.

I don't know, the gameplay isn't deep or anything. It was good enough to get me through the incredibly wacky story.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/09/21 7:13:08 PM
#282
Yeah I think Mario Party 2 is the definitive Mario Party game, for better or worse.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/09/21 4:40:01 PM
#272
#85 Wolfenstein: The New Order (Playstation 4, 2014)

Alternate history stuff is cool. In Wolfenstein: The New Order, the Allies lose World War II and the world is overrun by Nazis. Years later, a resistance rises up to try to stop them. In this timeline, the Nazis have access to all sorts of strange technology due to their unethical experiments, and world culture has been corrupted by their influence. The result is a 1960s Europe that feels alien but also familiar.

That's the setting for the game, but the actual gameplay is also really satisfying. The New Order is a first-person shooter with a decent amount of stealth and exploration, and rather than running and gunning through each level, you are focused on solving a series of situations using a variety of techniques. So some stages are combat-heavy, but others are more about navigating areas or solving problems. The environments are varied and range from German castles and devastated cities to sewers and concentration camps to more outlandish environments like the moon or a bridge over the Strait of Gibraltar.



That's not to say that the combat itself isn't best-in-class. The shooting works well and there are a lot of different guns that mostly feel great to shoot. You have options for silent take-downs or more conventional approaches. Guns can be dual-wielded for double the firepower with reduced accuracy, although ammo conservation is a factor too. But you really can't call any bullets wasted when they are used on Nazis.

Another cool thing is the collection of original recordings you can pick up throughout the game inspired by 60s era pop songs, but with German lyrics that reflect the alternate history. I thought that was a really nice touch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJz4m07C77E


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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/08/21 7:24:27 PM
#246
yeah next topic we should put "video games" in the title i think

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/08/21 7:08:43 PM
#243
Ratchet and Clank?

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/08/21 6:18:48 PM
#238
#86 Awesomenauts (Microsoft Windows, 2012)

Despite it placing here, I do not recommend that you play Awesomenauts. It is no longer a good game, sadly.

That's the unfortunate problem with online competitive games, or online games in general: they can change permanently. And Ronimo Games, the developer, did not always seem to know what made Awesomenauts great in the first place.

It first showed up on PS3/360 as a simple MOBA that played like a 2D action platformer, during the big MOBA craze following the popularity of League of Legends and Dota. If you're not familiar, the basic structure of a MOBA match involves attacking the opposing team's base while defending your own from enemy players and NPCs that are trying to do the same.



When Awesomenauts was ported to Windows, the game started receiving regular updates with new characters, costumes, features, and so on. The game had a distinction from the other MOBAs not just because of the way it played, but also because of how pick-up friendly the game was. If you were skilled enough, it was always possible to carry your team to victory single-handedly. When compared with similar games that relied heavily on team strategy, intricate mechanics, and farming gold/exp, Awesomenauts was very straight-forward.

Awesomenauts ate up a huge part of my life from 2012 to early 2014. I discovered the game around the time that I was separating from my then-wife, and it filled that void perfectly. I joined the community, found new friends and a team to play with, and worked my way up the competitive ladder. There was a crowd-funded expansion that I gladly contributed an unreasonable amount of money to, and the developers delivered a lot of great new content.



Unfortunately, at some point the game was completely reworked to make it more stat and experience-based in the vein of Blizzard's Heroes of the Stormanother game I enjoyed, to be sure, but a very different gameand some of the key promised features never came to fruition. Ronimo began focusing efforts on other games, and Awesomenauts declined rapidly. This coincided with me meeting a girl and having much less time for games in general, which lead to me eventually abandoning the game completely. But the impact the game had on me cannot be overstated. For over a year of my life, this was *the* video game that I played, and at my peak, I was one of the top players in the world. Definitely an experience I will treasure, and I will always be a little sad that I cannot go back to it.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/08/21 11:18:25 AM
#234
Chrono Cross came to mind but idk what character appears in a few other places

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/07/21 8:25:36 PM
#230
#87 Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol (Microsoft Windows, 1995)

Mordor (which has nothing to do with Tolkien or his writing) is the first rogue-like game I ever played. I did play the original Rogue at some point, but I am sure it was at least a few years later.



Mordor is a text and window-based dungeon crawler with very little in terms of graphics. The game is presented in a bunch of different windows that show the character sheet, inventory, dungeon map, enemy portraits, et cetera. Like Rogue, the game revolves around exploring a procedurally-generated dungeon and attempting to get to the last level. If you die, you have to start over with another character and find your corpse. If you take too long (or have the misfortune of having your life drained), your character will get elderly and weak and eventually die for good. Although it's all very old now and probably has not aged well at all, I found it to be incredibly addicting, even if it was impossible for me to beat at the time. And I never did actually finish it.

It happened to be one of those formative games for me and as a kid with way more free time than money, provided an enormous value. The only reason I won't rank it higher than this is that I hardly remember the details 25 years later.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/07/21 6:14:12 PM
#223
Now here's a series I never played. I don't know why. It just never happened for me.

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TopicWhat to do when your country has become a Banana Republic.
Bartzyx
01/07/21 6:11:51 PM
#2
how long did you spend on this

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/07/21 9:27:45 AM
#218
#88 The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Nintendo 64, 2000)

I feel like ranking MM over OoT is the "hot take" thing to do, but I liked this game better since the first time I beat it. I don't really care that the game was a little rushed and reuses many of Ocarina of Time's graphical assets. Other great games have done similar and I even have some yet to come on this list.

Majora's Mask is a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, and it feels designed as a continuation of that game. There is not a real tutorial dungeon or anything like that. You get thrown into a Deku body and have three days to find a way out. The game gives you some hints as to what to do, but you are left to explore the town and do as you wish until time runs out. My first time, it took me several tries, but eventually figured out how to proceed. It all felt like a natural continuation of the difficulty curve that started in the previous game.


I don't mind the three day loop. It adds a sense of urgency, and there are enough things that can be done to get around it if you really want. The mask system is neat and being able to take on different forms adds a lot of variety. Unlike in Ocarina of Time, the developers took care to create a strong cast of interesting characters that inhabit Termina and due to the persistent game clock, everyone has someplace to be at any given time, which was a very fresh feature. Personally, the doomsday setting did a lot for me too.

It's a different kind of game from Ocarina of Time, and I know that some people prefer OoT to it. And that's OK. But Majora's Mask for me was more fun, had a more resonant story and characters, and delivered a better payoff at the end.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/06/21 8:39:37 PM
#208
#89 Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (Nintendo DS, 2006)

Whoooa! This post is dangerous! Resident Evil was a revolutionary game when it came out. It's really powerful, especially against living things. It was almost a Jill Sandwich, and came loaded with never-before seen features, such as Chris's blood, a dining room, the Master of Unlocking, and terrible demons... Ouch!

It's the first game in a series that I did not get into until 10 years after the release of the original game when I picked up a clearance-priced copy of the DS version. The REmake for GameCube is technically the "better" and more polished game, but the 1996 original is the number one camp game of all time, and the Nintendo DS remaster has a number of nice little quality of life improvements, notably a persistentmap on the second screen, and the ability to skip the grating room transitions. Now, let's get back to searching for the lost captain and Chris, shall we?

I haven't even mentioned Barry Burton yet.



Barry's such a fool. He'll be under the control of Umbrella forever. But he's also so optimistic, and a total badass who is never afraid to ask, "What is this?" While most of the other voice actors phoned in their lines, Barry did everything he could to ham things up in the best way possible.

I know what you're probably thinking. How can a game get ranked that highly on camp alone? Yeah, I thought about that too. Perhaps that was the most important part. But just take a look at THIS! It was more than just jump scares and cheesy dialogue. Resident Evil also delivered a batch of innovations to mainstream horror games, and used limited inventory and fixed camera perspective to really amp up the tension. To this day, I still feel incredibly anxious around the Chimera enemies, and I have beaten the game countless times.

Lost courage already? That's not like you. Experience one of the best video game scenes of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VoqGbFs6Bw

What do you think of it? Don't be upset. All weak people exist to be eaten.

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/06/21 7:48:11 PM
#204
I always want to click that "X" in the top corner of Nick's images

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TopicNFL Discussion Topic - Week 17
Bartzyx
01/06/21 5:20:45 PM
#185
Yeah, just wait until the Jags hire Adam Gase

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/05/21 9:26:17 PM
#191
#90 Darksiders (Playstation 3, 2010)

Darksiders is one of the only games that has taken on the Legend of Zelda "formula" and actually managed to be on par with its inspiration. It takes the basic framework of the Zelda games (explore world, enter dungeon, get item, use item, repeat) and combines it with a slick character action system that doesn't really get old.



The art design is one of the strong points of the series. It evokes a lot of the classic 3D action adventure games from the N64 and PS2 eras, but makes it all very smooth and slick. The story moves quickly and delivers a great cliffhanger ending. Too bad the sequels decided not to actual advance the story at all ever.

I know I complain about game series that fail to innovate, but I wish that Darksiders 2 and 3 did not try so hard to be something different. The first Darksiders is easily the best of the three (have not played Genesis) and I would have loved to play more of it.

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TopicShould 5 be the score for an average game, or 7 (out of 10)?
Bartzyx
01/05/21 3:22:59 PM
#15
Solioxrz362 posted...
Is that really average, or is that just a mediocre game?

mediocre by definition is something of moderate quality, not very good or bad.

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TopicShould 5 be the score for an average game, or 7 (out of 10)?
Bartzyx
01/05/21 2:51:10 PM
#5
Doesn't 7 mean "good" in most scoring guides?

If the average game is good, then the average would end up being 7.

edit: really, the fact of the matter is that most games are going to be 7 or higher because bad games tend to either get improved prior to release, or not released at all.

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Topicbastion beated
Bartzyx
01/05/21 12:28:04 PM
#14
I liked the spear a lot, I think that was my favorite weapon. Spear + bazooka or whatever it's called.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/05/21 11:27:30 AM
#177
#91 God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Playstation 3, 2011)

Ghost of Sparta probably would have been the best God of War game if it had not originally been a PSP release. Still, it looks pretty good and plays well. Despite the technical limitations, the game manages to have some nice setpiece moments and entertaining boss fights. The PS3 version upscales nicely and runs smoothly. The lack of enemy hordes onscreen simultaneously is usually compensated for by making most of the environments more intimate.

It takes place between the first two games and explores Kratos's predictably tragic childhood and family. So although it's all Greek mythological nonsense, this is really the only game in the original God of War series with any emotional resonance at all. In a series that features a wholly despicable cast, that's an accomplishment.

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Topicy'all ready for 4 more years of Trump?
Bartzyx
01/05/21 11:19:12 AM
#3
he lost the election dude

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/04/21 11:41:58 PM
#172
MrSmartGuy posted...
I played this game. It was basically Persona, but with bad characters, bad writing, and bad game design. Honestly, playing Cyber Sleuth gave me a much greater appreciation for the Persona series for getting those three things so right.

Also, Cyber Sleuth does stuff like this.
https://twitter.com/MrSmartGuyB8/status/1259622801910009856

Oh, I heard you guys talk about this game a lot at some point and assumed it was good? I guess not.

And yeah, Cannon Fodder is fun as hell.


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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/04/21 6:52:39 PM
#155
#92 The Wolf Among Us (Playstation 3, 2013)

Telltale was responsible for breathing new life into the Adventure game genre with its formula of episodic "CYOA" games, and even if the company kind of beat that formula to death, I will always have to respect that.

Before it got old, the company put out The Wolf Among Us, which is based on comic book series called Fables. It's an interesting take on the characters from well-known fairy tales who all live together in disguise in New York City.

The game is presented in the noir style which is neat and I found the story engaging enough to hold my attention throughout all five episodes. I know better than to play any Telltale game more than once to avoid ruining the illusion of choice, and so it was all over pretty quickly. I guess there is some sequel that has been in development hell for years, but I would play that probably if it ever comes out.

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TopicDoes ertyu still post here?
Bartzyx
01/04/21 2:43:13 PM
#2
yeah vlado still makes topics all the time

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TopicDo you have a mostly positive or negative opinion on Ultros?
Bartzyx
01/04/21 2:15:19 PM
#6
Thank you for making the topic I was too lazy to make

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TopicHa. Looks like there's a human behind DoubleOSnake after all.
Bartzyx
01/04/21 10:17:03 AM
#7
I've been blocked at least once by his earlier accounts.

I think he's just a strange person who likes to make polls.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/04/21 9:28:32 AM
#152
#93 Pokmon Red Version (Game Boy, 1998)

The first Pokmon game is a miracle. Pokmon Red and Blue were released as such technical messes that there should have been no way that they caught on like they did. I guess that's a testament to the strength of the concept. Game Freak combined monster collection with simple RPG game mechanics and created something revolutionary. And I guess being revolutionary once was enough, because ever since then the company has been content to just re-release the same basic game over 15 times now.



Sure, each new version is usually an improvement over the last, but for me, nothing ever captured the magic the same way that the first one did. I got Red Version and my brother got Blue, and we raced each other through the game, battling several times as we improved our makeshift Pokmon crews. I never noticed all the glitches and problems, which means they might as well have not been there. We played the games without much future knowledge of what was in them, which made the world seem so much more grand and mysterious. It was always a surprise as to what Pokmon we would find.

My brother and I made a tradition of playing through the next few versions together, but after he moved out I lost interest in the series and never got back into it again. I knew that the other experiences could never live up to what I had gone through already.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/03/21 11:49:25 PM
#144
#94 Shadow of the Colossus (Playstation 2, 2005)

I know this game is divisive. It's deeply flawed. But I still love it. The desolate world that the Colossi inhabit was so much fun to explore that first time, and each one was a unique puzzle, almost all of which can be solved very intuitively (fuck you Pelagia!). The minimal story is also touching and I felt so sad for Wander, the player character.



Unfortunately, the controls in the game are often aggravating and some of the coolest moments in the Colossus fights are ruined by the inconsistency of Wander's abilities. This deficiency is magnified in the PS3 remaster for techincal reasons, and it makes the game even more frustrating when it happens. But the high points of this game are so high that I cannot hold these flaws against it.

I want to get around to the PS4 remake someday. I played the game twice, about 6 years apart, so maybe after another 6 years I will be ready. I think that's coming up soon.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/03/21 3:26:47 PM
#127
Thanks! It's hard to tell sometimes when anyone is reading.

#95 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, 1992)

As I said before, I somehow missed this game on the SNES, and didn't come back to it until I started emulating SNES games in the late 90s. I had already played and beat Ocarina, and at that point "Zelda" as a concept in my mind was ingrained as that experience; it was hard to imagine it working in less than three dimensions. But I decided to give a 2D Zelda a try, and that was a good idea!

Everything about this game works well. The world is smartly designed, the items are fun and mostly all have important/interesting uses, and you access the second world just when you think "oh this game isn't that big" which was a neat moment for me.

Afterward, I tried out the NES Zeldas which honestly did not do much for me. I never played the NES when it was relevant, and by the time I went back and tried all the classic games for it, I just did not have the necessary patience to enjoy most of them.

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TopicDo you live in a house or an apartment?
Bartzyx
01/03/21 3:26:27 PM
#2
is a townhouse a house?

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/03/21 11:30:01 AM
#123
When I see you say that MGS2, a game I found so unplayable, to have the best gameplay in the series, it just reinforces that MGS is not for me.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/03/21 9:53:41 AM
#120
#96 Heavy Rain (Playstation 4, 2016)



"Jay-son!" "JASON!" "Shaaaaaaaauuuun!" If you played Heavy Rain, then protagonist Ethan's repetitive cries of anguish while searching for his sons are familiar (and hopefully dear) to you. This is the textbook Quantic Dream game: plotholes galore, silly quicktime events, inappropriate accents, and nonsensical dialogue. For me, all these things really just add to the sort of "B-movie" charm.

Heavy Rain is more or less an adventure game in which you play as multiple characters who are involved in the case of a serial killer whose M.O. is abducting and drowning young boys. There are plenty of action sequences but most are controlled through simple quick-time events. As the story progresses in an increasingly ridiculous and dramatic fashion, there are points where characters might die if you fail enough button prompts, which affects what scenes you experience later on. The better you play, the more characters are alive to participate in the climax, and the happier the ending is. Unless you don't want these people to have a happy ending, then by all means kill them off!

I did not play this game until a couple years ago, so I know I am late to the party. But I don't know if any game since has really done what Heavy Rain did, for better or worse. It's a unique experience that I really enjoyed because of what it is.

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TopicNFL Pickem topic week 17 (TIEBREAK Top 4)
Bartzyx
01/02/21 5:12:46 PM
#21
Buffalo Bills
Baltimore Ravens
Cleveland Browns
Minnesota Vikings
New York Jets
New York Giants
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Green Bay Packers
Las Vegas Raiders
Indianapolis Colts
Los Angeles Chargers
Arizona Cardinals
Seattle Seahawks
New Orleans Saints
Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/02/21 4:31:44 PM
#109
#97 Duke Nukem II (MS-DOS, 1993)

Most people know Duke Nukem as the vulgar, wise-cracking egomaniac from Duke Nukem 3D, but before that, he was just a tough-guy who jumped around in 2D platformers while shooting things. Duke Nukem II is a simple and violent action platformer with an incredible soundtrack that shamelessly rips off 80s metal songs. That was enough for young Bartz to think that this game was the absolute shit. While jumping and climbing around the environment, Duke collects guns and power-ups that help him to kill aliens. The 32 stages were very colorful and each one had a unique theme and palette, which was a pretty cool thing at the time.



That being said, it was subject to many limitations that other PC games had at the time, meaning the scrolling was choppy, the sprites were overly large on the screen, and Duke of course suffered from console envy. I think technically it's not as a good a game as the first Duke Nukem was, but the improved style and atmosphere go a long way for me.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/02/21 3:34:55 PM
#104
Outland is sort of a metroidvania, isn't it? It's been a while since I played it.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/02/21 11:15:59 AM
#97
#98 Plants vs. Zombies (Microsoft Windows, 2009)

Remember when tower defense games were everywhere? Plants vs. Zombies came out in that environment and kind of made every other one of those games look like crap. The gameplay was simple and fast-paced, and encouraged both strategy and frantic clicking. It had me and my then-partner captivated for several weeks, which did not happen often. While it was very cute, I didn't really get into the "story" or the characters, so I never tried any other games in that franchise.

It's a shame the sequel never came home, but I think the grindy free-to-play model was not suited well for PC (or me) anyway.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/01/21 11:52:40 PM
#90
#99 Flower (Playstation 3, 2009)

Probably one of the least "game-like" entries on my list, Flower was one of my favorite new experiences while it lasted. For the most part, it's a very relaxing game (don't bring the trophies into this conversation, though). You control the wind to manipulate a flower petal through the air, and when it gets near things, they come to life or animate. And that's really all there is to it. It's mostly an audiovisual experience and at the time, there was not much else like it. The game is full of vibrant colors and peaceful music that evokes nature. There is a bit of a story told throughout the thing, and it's all over after a few hours.

These days, I can appreciate things that are over after a few hours.

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TopicAww Yeah Platinum #283 GET! - Assassin's Creed III Remastered
Bartzyx
01/01/21 6:15:24 PM
#13
I really enjoyed AC:B multiplayer for what it was.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/01/21 5:30:20 PM
#79
#100 Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Playstation 3, 2013)

Many of you know that I am not the biggest anime fan. But I usually make an exception for Studio Ghibli stuff, and many of the animated scenes in this game were produced there. The studio also served as an inspiration for the character and world design. Ni no Kuni is a stunningly beautiful game with a precise level of careful attention to detail. The story is heartwarming and fun, if a little disjointed at times. The game as released on PS3 is based on an original Japan-only DS game and an expansion, which results in an "Ending?" about 3/4 of the way through it, although to its credit, the game tries its best to integrate everything.

It plays kind of like Pokmon in the sense that monster collection is a major aspect of the game, but the battle system runs in real time with multiple party members. You control up to three party members, who each can fight or cast spells, or summon up to three "familiars" that are much stronger to battle in your stead. As an action RPG, you only control one character at a time, while relying on AI to help you out, with varying levels of success.

Outside of battles, you travel through the pretty overworld and well-realized towns and dungeons, and there are a decent number of things to do along the way. It ends up being a nice length, although I think the second quest is pretty forgettable. It makes my list mostly on its artistic merits, but the core gameplay is also fun, for the most part. Like many modern JRPGs, there is a grind-heavy post-game that relies on crafting things that you need to make other things that you need, but it did not take me overly long to do any of it.

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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/01/21 5:21:35 PM
#78
CherryCokes posted...
i assume Journey

You're on the right track, at least. I'm thinking of my #99.


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TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
01/01/21 4:55:06 PM
#72
Abzu is great! It's gorgeous and I agree, can be moving. I really enjoyed it and I cannot think of any other game that really explores that kind of setting. Really similar in concept to another good game that I will be talking about very soon.

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
12/31/20 7:22:16 PM
#65
I was trying to think of another way I could slice my top 100 list for another tease, but came up blank. Anyway, these are my last two mentions before I get started on the actual list. I think the others might need another day or two before we get started with the actual top 100 lists, but I'm ready.

HONORABLE MENTION: Challenge of the Ancient Empires! (MS-DOS, 1990)

This game was released as part of The Learning Company's line of edutainment products, although unlike the rest of the company's games, it has little or no educational value (the purported benefit was teaching "problem solving"). The game is a 2D puzzle platformer that involves exploring areas themed after ancient empires. Around 1990 or 1991, my dad somehow got his hands on several The Learning Company games, and this was one of them. Playing those games is one of my earliest video game experiences, and Ancient Empires was one of only a few that closely resemble a traditional game, and ended up being one of my favorites.

The game used a combination of basic MIDI for the music, and the PC speaker for sound effects. So it sounded pretty bad. But the soundtrack (based on classical music) is still something that I can readily recall at a moments notice. The game featured very basic platforming and some puzzles that mostly revolved around pulling switches or walking over buttons to operate mirrors and belts. Each level ends with a puzzle where you assemble a picture or something. I think I beat it once or twice, and I actually have a copy sitting somewhere on my computer (courtesy of my brother, shoutouts to him), but haven't played it since that time.

HONORABLE MENTION: Streets of SimCity (Microsoft Windows, 1997)

I want to preface this by saying that Streets of SimCity is not a good game. Despite this, I wanted to mention it because it is an incredible thing. It's a really neat idea: what if you could explore and race your SimCity 2000 levels in a car? And what if your car had guns? Unfortunately, for those who have played SimCity 2000, you will know that the geographical limitations of that game do not translate at all well to a driving game (there are two grades in the game: flat and 45%). It's a totally janky mess, but it's such an interesting mess! The levels operate as an open world where you can drive around, upgrade your car, and shoot things while participating in various race and deathmatch missions.

The game was kind of a parody and you could see a lot of the weird Maxis humor that ended up making its way into games like The Sims. You could listen to a number of radio stations with original music and it was all really goofy. But the actual gameplay was not so good. Better than SimCopter, which had a similar concept, but that's really not saying much at all. Still, I appreciate this game for trying something new and giving teenage me the ability to explore the cities that I built.

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicMF DOOM died
Bartzyx
12/31/20 5:29:54 PM
#11
Forceful_Dragon posted...
RIP MF DOOM ;_;

And not to get side tracked from this tragedy, but this post makes me curious, if someone from the US was travelling in Australia and died right now would they have died in 2020 or 2021? I'm assuming 2021.

died in 2021 in Australia, but in 2020 in the US.

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicYour new year's eve plans
Bartzyx
12/31/20 4:27:36 PM
#11
I think I'm going to watch a movie

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TopicYour First Thought 184: "2020."
Bartzyx
12/31/20 4:06:05 PM
#8
Hindsight is...

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
12/31/20 2:40:56 PM
#48
To this day I somehow avoided playing most of those games. I played Banjo Kazooie and I think a little bit of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, and that's it.

Spoiler: Croc did not make it onto my list.

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicAnyone have recent experience switching ISPs? Specifically from comcast?
Bartzyx
12/31/20 2:19:01 PM
#13
oh yeah, you could always tell them it's because you are moving to an area that they don't service, true.

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
12/31/20 2:09:26 PM
#42
MrSmartGuy posted...
Honorable Mention - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, 2006)

I think your thoughts specific to this game sum up mine pretty well. The first several hours of TP are really dreadful, aren't they? But the last few dungeons are actually really great! Save the best for last I guess.

They probably remastered it at some point, right? My other main complaint about this game was how blurry it looked during a time of HD video games. I would be willing to try it again in HD, although after reading your comments, I am in no hurry.

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
12/31/20 1:55:57 PM
#39
The Steam version was ported to Unity

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At least your mother tipped well
TopicThe Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games
Bartzyx
12/31/20 1:51:55 PM
#37
Here is the distribution by decade. Pretty even count!

1990s: 39
2000s: 35
2010s: 26

Fun fact: There is at least one game in my top 100 from each year from 1990 to 2017. But nothing from the last 3 years. You might wonder why there is no 1980s representation here. Well, I never owned the NES, and although I played plenty of Atari 2600, I do not think any of those games are particularly good. It also so happens that during the 80s I was very very young, if you can believe that.

HONORABLE MENTION: Frog Fractions (Adobe Flash, 2012)

You either know why this game is here, or you don't. Fitting that I post this here since Flash is dead as of today, but if you do not know what the game is, stop reading this and go download it for free from Steam.

Frog Fractions was a really neat subversive distraction when it was first put out on the internet, and although the concept I think is now a bit old hat, when I first tried it I was pleasantly surprised at how far the joke ended up going. It ended up being one of those online cultural moments where everyone was talking about it and you had to play it to see why. Since I am pretty cheap these days, this only really happens for me when the game is free. Fall Guys was another one of those moments for me this year, but unlike Fall Guys, I still look back fondly on Frog Fractions.

HONORABLE MENTION: Betrayal at Krondor (MS-DOS, 1993)

One of my hobbies in the mid-nineties was reading fantasy novels, and at some point my older brothers introduced me to Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar series. Betrayal at Krondor is a Western RPG set in that same world, and featured a vivid graphical interface that allowed you to explore much of that open world in first-person. Although very primitive by today's standards, the 3D-rendered landscapes made a big impression on me, and the recorded CD audio sounded incredible. The story was standard fantasy fare and I struggle to recall any of it, but the gameplay was unusually complex, and featured beautiful combat sequences on a tactical grid. I think these days I would detest a lot of the game mechanics, such as weapon/armor durability, hunger, et cetera, but this was all OK with me back when I played, and I dealt with it.

I remember the length of the game being forever long, but this might be due to my low skill level as a kid. If I went back and played it today, maybe my playtime would be much more manageable. But I probably would not have the patience to deal with it either. So it remains a fond nostalgic experience from my youth.


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