Keeping track of video games beaten in 2022

[Lizuka #BLM]

Hey, it's been fun the last couple of years, why not keep it up?

1. Super Mario World

Kind of just did a bare minimum get to Bowser via Star Road run this time, though probably will resume and get all the exits later. Felt like an appropriate one to kick off the year with since it was my first game period back when I was a kid.

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

I love this thread. Glad to see it quickly get the 2022 renew!

—MY RUNNING LIST 2022—

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler} 1: Diablo II: Resurrected (4.5 / 5)
2: Dark Souls III - NG+ (5 / 5)
3: Diablo III - Switch (3 / 5)
4: Kena: Bridge of Spirits (4 / 5)
5: Pokémon Legends: Arceus (4 / 5)
6: Elden Ring (6 / 5) — GOTY
7: Hellpoint (2.5 / 5)
8: Mortal Shell (3.75 / 5)
9: The Surge (4 / 5)
10: The Surge 2 (4 / 5)
11: Remnant: From the Ashes (3.5 / 5)
12: Gone Home - Console Edition (3.5 / 5)
13: Oxenfree (Inc)
14: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (3.75 / 5)
15: Outriders (3.5 / 5)
16: Code Vein (3.5 / 5)
17: Dungeons & Dragons; Dark Alliance (3.25 / 5)
18: Observer (2.5 / 5)
19: Hitman II (3 / 5)
20: The Division (3.25 / 5)
21: Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (4 / 5)
22: Anthem (3.25 / 5)
23: Trials of Mana (3.75 / 5)
24: Dark Nights With Poe and Munro (3 / 5)
25: Maquette (0 / 5)
26: Mass Effect 1 [Legendary Edition] (3 / 5)
27: Dark Pictures Anthology; House of Ashes (2.75 / 5)
28: Scarlet Nexus (3.5 / 5)
29: Journey (2.5 / 5)
30: Hades (4.5 / 5)
31: Death’s Door (3.25 / 5)
32: Limbo (3 / 5)
33: Inside (3.5 / 5)
34: Plague Tale Innocence (3 / 5)
35: Far Cry 6 (3.25 / 5)
36: Cyberpunk2077 (3.5 / 5)
37: As Dusk Falls (4 / 5)
38: Batman The Enemy Within ( 4 / 5)
39: Dying Light (3.5 / 5)
40: WWE2K22: Showcase Mode ( )
41: Thymesia (3.5 / 5)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

2021
1: CONTROL (Plat!)
2: Valhalla
3: Repentance
4: REVIII
5: BioMutant
6: Exit The Gungeon
7: Watch Dogs Legion
8: Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
9: Life is Strange: True Colors (Plat!)
10: Guardians of the Galaxy

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

1: Diablo II: Resurrected

Took awhile for this one. My PS5 had a hard time maintaining an internet connection so I just couldn’t play for awhile. Finally got that fixed and kind of mainlined it over this winter break.

Funny enough, this is the first time I beat it in my life. I played the heck out of this game as a kid (to the point it got taken away by my parents, and I swore it off), but we had such a trash tier computer I was never able to actually play, I kind of tagged along with better friends and let Thorns handle everything. This game really held up, and I would easily rank it above D3 which I played a little on Switch while I was finishing this.

4.5 / 5

[Lizuka #BLM]

2. Super Mario 64
3. Super Mario Bros. 3
4. Super Mario Bros.
5. Super Mario 3D World

My Internet's been down for three days so had little to do but play a bunch of Mario games and watch random anime. Guess nice to welcome 3D World to the fold of being one I just go to on a whim like this, the Switch version really majorly elevated my opinion of that game.

[67 more]

Same as last year, this post will be my master list and I'll add singular additions as the year goes on.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}

1. Dark Pictures House of Ashes (PS5, physical)

A really good one of these, let down by its instability. Originally tried playing it on the XB1, but the graphical glitches were unbearable. Now I've upgraded, got the PS5 version. It's still glitchy but the glitches correct much faster thanks to the faster storage. I'd say the game is almost unplayable on mechanical hard drives due to how slow the texture pop-in is. Story and scares really, really good once you get past the jankiness and hopefully patches will polish it up.

2. Lost Judgment (PS4, physical)

Have been playing this since October. Was 30 hours in when I got the PS5 so didn't upgrade to the PS5 version so as not to lose progress. Did play the PS4 version on PS5 though for the faster loading times. Also played it with the Japanese audio as I prefer it. Main story wise, it's the weaker of the two Judgments and gets downright nonsensical at the end, but side content wise, oh boy, blows Judgment out of the water. There are so many great school stories and the side games linked to these stories are so clean and polished. Tried the Amon fight but failed spectacularly. Finished it with 86 hours gameplay. Would absolutely recommend.

3. Spider-Man, PS1, physical (played on my PS2 Bravia TV)

First time I've played it. Had a fun time and was a nice short game to play after the months of playing Lost Judgment. Didn't use What If mode but will do if I replay it. The difficulty of the game is really inconsistent. The underwater trench, Venom chases and the Mysterio boss fight were extremely difficult (especially hampered by the controls), but Doc Ock and Carnage were ridiculously easy. Monster-Ock wasn't too challenging either. Good humour throughout the game but everyone's face being a static JPG is really disconcerting.

4. Tony Hawk Underground 2 (PS2, physical)

On holiday so we brought along my PS2 Bravia TV for when the wife is asleep. Just finished the normal story mode with 100% goals and Good Lord was Neversoft struggling after the stellar THUG 1. Tiny amount of original levels padded out with some ridiculously difficult goals and honestly, a worthless, horribly dated storyline. Leave this one in the past, there's a good reason my memory card said 2009 last touched on this.

5. 5. Simple 1500: The Pro Wrestling 2 (PS1, physical)

This is cheeky to include as the Champion Road is only like ten matches long, but it's a fun budget mindless redundant death match wrestling game with fictional characters and made by Yukes using the SD! 2 engine. There's concrete rings, tatami judo rings, fire around the ring if you want, no ropes, barbwire ropes, exploding barbwire matches. The different rings do different amounts of damage and it has actual limb damage tracking which Yukes didn't put into the SD games until HCTP. Hit a running attack too early and the opponent no-sells, hit a move at the same time and you get a Fire Pro style chop battle, opponents fight your Irish whip in the exploding barbwire match, your opponents scream if you knock them out the ring into the fire. It's amazing to see what could have been in the SD games and really makes you wish Yukes had developed the ECW games rather than Akklaim using the Attitude engine.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5 upgrade, PS4 physical disc)

What a game. Gameplay's solid and challenging but not impossible, graphics look amazing, super consistent framerate, decent illusion of choice and the humour and characters are spot-on. Biggest challenge I had was the final Raker fight but even then I was able to beat it the next day easily once I'd gone back to it not frustrated. All in all, a very good game which I wholeheartedly recommend.

7. Spider-Man 2 Enter Electro (PS1, physical, played on the PS2 Bravia)

Another great Spiderman PS1 game, hampered by the limitations of its time. Hammerhead boss fight was infuriating because of the lack of a movable camera. Stopping the plane was infuriating. The Electro and Hyper-Electro boss fights were quite easy to be honest, thanks to the very generous health drops. My biggest complaint of this one is sometimes there'd be three or four levels with no save point, that's way too unforgiving. First one was stingy with only giving every two levels but at least it was consistent.

8. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (PS3, physical)

Jesus, this was a broken buggy mess. Headless zombies spawning, kills not counting towards town safety, zombies spawning as headless NPCs, crashing while saving, crashing while dying. This has to be one of the worst releases QA-wise a major studio has put out, which is such a shame because underneath the jank there is a fun little game here but it's very difficult to enjoy it when the game just doesn't function (and why does no one talk about this?). Removed the patches to fix the headless glitch but the framerate then sank to such a level I felt motion-sick, so had to repatch. The game pretty much rushes you to the end once you hit Mexico as well, all of a sudden I'm doing the last level and it feels like I've suddenly skipped huge masses of content. Major letdown.

9. SpongeBob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated (PS4, digital, played on PS5)

Well, as I've been meaning to play it and it's free on PS Plus this month, seemed like the right time to start. Never played the original. After the broken slog that was Undead Nightmare, nice to play a fun short platformer. Didn't 100% but did most of it. The voices for Mr Krabs and Mermaidman are f***ing awful, could you really not get a better impressionist? Only really encountered glitches when trying to look for them. Final boss disappointly easy, especially after the small hell that was the Spongebob's Dream stage. Enjoyed the game thoroughly though, would recommend regardless if you played the original or not.

10. John Woo's Stranglehold (Xbox 360, physical)

Well, this was a fun mindless short shooter that I picked up for 50p from CeX. Even watched Hard Boiled on LaserDisc to prepare for it (completely unnecessary, the movie and the game are barely linked). Had to dig out the 360 as it's not supported on XB1. Some very mild bugs here and there, got stuck on normal difficulty in the museum so had to drop to casual (the coward's way out). Hitting people with Precision Aim in the nuts is way too addictive. Voice acting is pretty bad, Chow Yun-fat (Tequila) is quiet and accented and there's no subtitles either, so you have to turn the volume way up for cutscenes. I don't remember Xbox 360 looking quite so rectangular and low poly either.

11. Terminator Resistance (PS5 upgrade, PS4 physical disc)

Wow, this game is seriously underrated. Very enjoyable, likable characters, great use of the Terminator licence. Teyon did a great job on this, I imagine it will be their magnum opus. Enjoyable simple crafting systems, satisfying level-ups and definitely more than a hint of Fallout inspired the game. The stealth mission in the hospital where you have no way of fighting the Terminators is so tense. Have no idea what the critics were talking about when reviewing this game, I'd recommend this wholeheartedly as a fun 15-20 hour shorter game.

12. Shenmue (PS4, physical, played on PS5)

Wow, this was certainly an... experience. Big fan of the Yakuza and Judgment games so thought it's time to finally play the sort of granddad of them. The game's not what you would describe as good. Controls and combat are awkward, voice acting is that special late 90's-early 00's cheese (and the HD port compresses it to f***), the forklift sections are somewhat torturous and the pacing is all sorts of messed up. It's so easy to miss substories due to their specific timings but they end up being so short its irrelevant anyway. However, with all of its flaws, I couldn't stop playing it. I was completely entrenched and just every free moment this week I've just wanted to advance day by day. There's definitely the same lovable jank factor from playing the PS2 version of Yakuza 1 with the awful (amazing) English dub and I think the similarities between the two really made me want to just carry on, although Shenmue looks way better, even comparing the original Dreamcast version. It's probably something I'd never replay, but it's also something that I think every person needs to experience a full playthrough just once in their life.

13. Tony Hawk's Underground (PS2, physical, played on the PS2 Bravia)

Damn, this game's go good and was much more enjoyable than THUG 2. Great first attempt of having an actual storyline in a Tony Hawk's game. Eric Sparrow is such a hateable shitty little f***weasel and that feeling of decking the knob at the end of the game (if you've completed it more than once) is so satisfying. Soundtrack is amazing, especially as I've got more into rap as I've got older. Chef's kiss.

14. 50 Cent - Blood On The Sand (PS3, physical)

This game has no right being as fun as it is, but damn it there's something so enjoyable being 50 firing rocket launchers, throwing Molotovs and shit as all his music blares and constant corny dialogue. The driving sections are a bit crap though and hitting the helicopters with RPGs is infuriating because the rockets are so slow. Texture pop-in can also be brutal, you can be in a level for a solid ten seconds before the textures load in. Final stage very anticlimatic. Would absolutely recommend for a quick, mindless shooter though.

15. The Quarry (PS5, physical)

Probably the best of the Supermassive Games aside from Until Dawn. Likable characters for the most part, fair QTEs, great presentation, good graphically (except for the water, the water effects suck and everyone has really big mouths). Was able to avoid super cheap deaths, only got one counsellor killed and it was absolutely by own fault. David Arquette is really misadvertised on how much he's in it compared to the trailer, you barely see him.


16. Yakuza 5 (PS3, digital)

f*** me, that was a lot of content. This has been my main game since July and 110 hours later, I've just finally beaten it and the Amon fight. I really enjoyed the mechanic of having both side stories and substories. Taxi driver missions were very relaxing (feel like ages ago), really enjoyed Saejima's hunting missions and enjoyed Shinada's baseball missions way more than I was expecting as I know nothing of the sport. Haruka's missions were a nice distraction but far too repetitive.

The final stretch I found a bit underwhelming, especially the final boss. He wasn't even a challenging boss, he just had a big health bar. Final scene made me tear up a bit, however. Very much a game for the diehard Yakuza fan, but I'd probably recommend 3 and 4 over it.

17. Shadows of the Damned (X360, physical, played on XB1)

Fun but flawed. Humour hits if you're in a juvenile mood, but the fact you can't skip cutscenes after you've already seen them once is grating. Controls take some getting used to in terms of movement and hit detection is spotty at best, which make boss battles go on far, far too long (especially the Fleming boss battle). Pop-in can be particularly egregious. As a eleven-hour pallette cleanser after Yakuza 5 though, exactly what I needed.


Game I didn't beat:

- Death Stranding Director's Cut (PS5, using PS4 physical disc plus paid upgrade)

Jesus, that was a boring two hours I'll never get back. I couldn't give a f*** about anyone plus all the Lynchian bullshit. Oh, look how weird and avantgarde we are. No, it's dull, pretentious shit. Maybe the game gets better, but I'm not spending the time to find out.

[Lizuka #BLM]

6. Super Mario Land

It's a game I go back to over and over, very quick, fun way to kill a little time. Not a gigantic amount to say about it but I think it kind of deserves more love than it gets, even if it is in a lot of ways very basic. Does suffer from the levels being too long with a lot of running into the same general arrangement over and over though, I guess to try to make the game a little longer (even though it's super short as it is) while working within the limitations of the Game Boy.

[Lizuka #BLM]

7. Yoshi's Island

Not one I refer to as frequently as some other classic Mario games since it can be a bit slow-paced with how long some of the levels are, though did beat it both last year and this year. Did mix it up a bit this time by playing the GBA version I guess? Either way, yeah, love the game even if it isn't the most pick-up-and-play out there, one I'm always happen to go back to. And with that I'm probably Marioed out for a bit, at least on platformers.

[Gecko]

1 - Death's Door
A nice change of pace from all the 50+ hour vast open world stuff. Tricky in places but doesn't feel unfair. Took me about 15 hours to 100% it, only using a guide to find the last few missing bits easier. Only reason I don't have platinum is the last trophy requires going through the whole game doing a certain thing.
As a bonus: It only costs about £16. Gecko recommended.

[Lizuka #BLM]

8. Mortal Kombat 9

Maybe it's because it was my first time playing it in years, maybe because it was my first time really using Kratos since I had the 360 version, maybe since I was playing it via streaming but I was just relentlessly getting my ass kicked for a lot of the later fights in this one despite having used to play it a ton and having zero trouble with MK11 whenever the mood strikes me for it. Think a lot of it's just that the AI in this game is very cheap, pretty relentlessly knowing the exact instant you drop your guard and being very happy to just runaway endlessly or spam the same moves over and over. Found myself getting a lot more frustrated with this than I expected to, don't think it's aged great.

[castletonsnob]

1. Pokemon Snap (N64).

Thought I'd start the year by beating something short and easy.

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

2: Dark Souls 3 - Usurpation of Fire Ending, NG+

Finally got this one out of the way! A culmination of an actual multi-year long trek where I finally decided to knock it out with Elden Ring around the corner. DS3 is still an incredible game, and the PS5 60FPS patch takes it to a whole new level. Considering a NG++ run to get the final ending and a couple more trophies.

5 / 5

[Gecko]

2 - Man of Medan
If you've played Until Dawn, you know what you're getting here. First of the Dark Pictures Anthology, I got the triple pack during a sale.
I enjoyed it, very jump-scarey but they're pretty effective ones.
The majority of the game is set on an empty ship, which is a great choice of location; tight corridors with 90 degree bends so you can't see that far ahead, plenty of stuff to make weird noises, very claustrophobic.
Probably it would be best played in the 'movie night' mode where 2-5 people take turns with the controller, but it works in single player as well. There's a bit of replayability in there with trying to save/kill different characters.

I'd be a bit iffy paying £25 for it, but getting it for under £10 (currently on sale on the PS Store) means I'm happy enough with it.

[Lizuka #BLM]

9. Mortal Kombat 11

Spent awhile tonight trying to fix an issue where for months the Hellspawn Jacqui skin has clogged my PS5 downloads refusing to be deleted. Kind of half-fixed it - it's still there but I can actually use it in the PS5 version now - but in either case figured might as well play some of the game after spending so long this evening fiddling with it. Not a lot to say about it, it's MK11, there's a lot to love about it but there's a lot of tedium and Kronika's cheap as hell.

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

3: Diablo III (Switch)

Figured I blast through my unfinished playthrough of this on the Switch now that I finally got my Joycon repaired. And, boy howdy is this game is rough compared to the remake of II. The graphical direction wasn’t nearly as dark & gritty and the animation all felt a little light and floaty.

Also shout out to my one legendary weapons’ ability…

35% of the time?

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler} You cluck … that’s it

I played the hell out of this game when it came out … even when it went from PS3 —> PS4 Gen, but it’s rough now especially on a switch.

3 / 5

[Lizuka #BLM]

10. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Had been wondering about picking it up while it was on sale after having fiddled with it before, then saw where it's free to play for the moment so just did that instead. I think it's a fun time killer but this first time actually finishing it leaves me feeling glad I didn't actually spend money on it, it can be pretty frustrating and even as short as it is it does kind of wear out its welcome.

[Lizuka #BLM]

11. Grand Theft Auto III

Was playing the HD version, signed up for a free trial of PS Now because I got decent Internet and wound up figuring I'd give it a whirl. Had certainly fiddled with it before, both as a kid and adult, but never really got especially into it. Playing through it all the way now... I was kind of digging it at first but the longer it goes on the worse it gets. I guess the game deserves respect for how much subsequent games built off of it but its lategame missions are very frustrating and repetitive and the whole thing just kind of feels like there's zero reason to play it over any GTA game that came afterward. In particular the driving AI is just complete ass, it is insane how often you get diverted entirely because a random person on the road will feel like doing a jump off a corner or just stop in the middle of the street so you plow into them.

The mission appropriately named Grand Theft Auto in particular might be the single worst mission in any GTA game. It hits a perfect balance of being utter bullshit with how strict the time on it is and also really goddamn boring and tedious. Also one of the times I was doing it the car I needed to take in phased into the ground so that was fun.

[Lizuka #BLM]

12. BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle

Decided to take a chance on picking up the complete edition of it while it was on sale. Only real exposure I have to any of the series actually present in it is Persona (and even then I haven't played a huge amount of Persona 3 or 4) but figured why not, it seemed fun so ended up giving it a whirl and turns out really enjoying it. Probably go for the other endings and do the secondary stories at some point but kind of played enough of it for tonight I think. Did kind of have the effect of making me curious about looking further into BlazBlue and maaaybe Under Night In-Birth, maybe look into the P4AU port when it makes it to Switch. ... Not a lot of interest in RWBY.

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

4: Kena Bridge of Spirits

I quite enjoyed this one. The game is absolutely beautiful, and the combat was surprisingly tough in spots, but also very fair. That is, until the co-final boss. There was nothing I could do to beat this guy on anything other than the baby difficulty. I tried for hours, but I could not figure out his fire swing combo in addition to his more aggressive style constantly chasing you down in the second half of the fight. Other than that one fight, really enjoyed it.

4 / 5

[agent817]

1. Broforce

Bought this off of the PSN recently. It's a fun and addictive game, but damn it's also hard. I also liked how there are obvious parodies of well-known action movie characters in it. Nice little tribute to 1980s and 1990s actions, with other ones from the 2000s and 2010s thrown in.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Jan 1, 2022 2:22:05 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Hey, it's been fun the last couple of years, why not keep it up?

1. Super Mario World

Kind of just did a bare minimum get to Bowser via Star Road run this time, though probably will resume and get all the exits later. Felt like an appropriate one to kick off the year with since it was my first game period back when I was a kid.

This is my year, after long, long, long last I will get all 96 exits and that star....always miss one.