Backloggery check up

benoit489

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Last year was a milestone for me. For the first since joining the website back in 2010, I came out on the positive side of things. Even though I got 3 games for Christmas, I was able to consider 2 of them "beat" before the New Year came. In 2014, I bought 19 games and beat 20, giving me an overall progress index score of +1.

2015 is off to a not-so-hot start. I'm currently at -2 after adding Duke Nukem 3D Megaton Edition and The Swapper, both free from PS+. Luckily I've got some easy to knock out games sitting in my backlog so I hope to be back in the positive by the end of the month!

How are you all doing?
 
In the past week and a half I have beaten (from start to finish for my first time playing them - except FFX which I played years ago but never really got into like I did previous titles in the franchise) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Final Fantasy X, The Lego Movie (100%ed with all achievements), Bioshock Infinite, and I am almost done with FFX-2 (although I missed EVERY side-quest in chapter 1 because I didn't understand how the game's navigation and story progression worked, so I'll have to NG+ it.) So, I guess about the same as usual for me; which is odd considering how I have been working practically every day from 6 AM to about 4 PM then I go to bed at 7 PM, so really I only game from 3 AM when I wake up until I go to work (and by 'work' I mean helping my landlady with chores around my park grounds I live on such as planting things, weeding, servicing computers and such. Although the past week I've been helping with building a house) and a bit before bed.
 
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That's a lot of game beatings. Do you have a backloggery account?

What did you think of Bioshock Infinite?
 
That's a lot of game beatings. Do you have a backloggery account?

What did you think of Bioshock Infinite?


Never even heard of backloggery and I wouldn't be able to recall every game I've ever played and / or beaten. Keep in mind I've been gaming since before the launch of the NES.

As for Infinite, I REALLY enjoyed it MUCH MORE than the first two. The first game was much much harder, mainly due to crappy aiming and shooting controls and poor hit detection (ended up melee and lightning my way through it) but had a MUCH better story. The second game was far too easy and had a mediocre story. Infinite had prestine controls and some neat new abilities (I mean as in natural, not ones that take Atom-like meters to use, but rather riding on rails similar to FF Dissidia - later ripped-off on by Kid Icarus: Uprising, and obviously this game). The story only has one ending, sadly, and it doesn't make any sense since it totally paradoxes itself much like FFX did. The other thing I didn't like about Infinite was it didn't have that macabre tone to it like the first two did. All the areas you visit are very bright and lively; usually, they are quite picturesque. No splicers or horror-style feel to the game, so you never got that feeling of "I'd better hide behind this wall and watch that weird creature's movements".

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Above: Riding a rail and knocking an enemy off as you hurl passed. Below: A tear you can open for supplies.

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The battles / combat themselves are very open, in that there are multiple ways of tackling most of them. You will almost always have a female AI character with you who has a unique ability that is used during the combat sequences to provide ammo or turrets or such to fight for you if you choose. Whenever you are low on ammo or "MP" she tosses you such, and as you collect coins she'll toss you money. She'll also pick locks for you and point out important 'rare' objects you may have missed in the environment such as gear and lockpicks. Because of these major changes the combat was always fresh and exciting and fun, so even though I didn't particularly care for the HORRIBLY BRIGHT atmospheres and lack of morbid and insane enemies or dark tone, I really enjoyed playing this one more than the others. If they keep the atmosphere and Silent Hill-esque splicers from the first two games but the combat system of this one (sans the girl and her abilities, that is, solely because it wouldn't make sense for the storyline to have her since this game doesn't take place in Rapture) I think they'd be golden on the next installment. I also wish there were a New Game + mode. I think every game should have a NG+ that works as Chrono Trigger originally founded.
 
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I liked Infinite too, but I enjoyed it a little less than the previous games. A few things threw off the experience for me. Like you said, the atmosphere and story from the first 2 games (my favorite parts) are missing from Infinite. The restriction of being able to carry only 2 guns was a pain and limited experimentation. I was also disappointed that the guns did not upgrade visually like they did in the first game. The Vigors were also lacking compared to the previous games. Also, the Handyman was a far cry from the Big Daddy. In B1, I enjoyed Big Daddy encounters because it gave me a chance to experiment with the game's mechanics; I could set up trip-wires with explosions to trap them in, then I'd light the gas at their feet on fire, then I'd freeze them and finish them off with my guns. In Infinite, I felt like most confrontations with a Handyman devolved to me running around the area looking for rockets to shoot at it.

The battles against regular enemies were a little more fun though given the introduction of the skyhook.
 
I've added so many games to my backlog in the past year alone. I need to update my backloggery account.
 
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