Games Beaten - December 2019

In December I completed 4 games. I also left for another vacation. I finished a few games before leaving.

1. Spyro Reignited Trilogy (PS4)
2. Yoshi's Mario Adventure 3 (Nintendo DS)
3. One Piece World Seeker (PS4)
4. Naughty Bear (PS3)

I really had a good year in 2019. Hopefully 2020 is even better year for finishing my backlog.

Dec 30 - Flow
Dec 09 - Tales from the Borderlands
Dec 04 - Mountain
Dec 04 - Faeria

Faeria was easily my favorite, a F2P CCG that needs more players. I played until I unlocked draft mode, then went 6-0, and that's when I thought "the only other players must be new like me because there's no way I should have a perfect draft run my first try." So I stopped and have been gushing about the game ever since. Mountain was an interesting glorified screen saver. Tales from the Borderlands made me realize, finally, last time, that I'm just not a fan of Borderlands. Flow was pretty but boring.

I decided it's time to try and tackle some of the games in the Steam library that take longer then a couple of hours – so only one medium game finished and a couple of micro puzzle games to pass the time on the train.

04-Dec-2019 – Mass Effect 18h48m
23-Dec-2019 – Yellow (2017) 41m
29-Dec-2019 – Red (2018) 1h36m

Mass Effect was awesome. I finished quite a few side quests but still felt like I could have kept at it for a long time. The tight story and design were some of the best I’ve seen in an RPG. I feel that maybe Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was marginally better – some of the characters were just more memorable – but it’s a close call between the two.

I also managed to put quite a few hours into Far Cry 2 – so I hope to beat it over the next few days.

My Game Completion Size Guide:
Micro (0-2 hours), Small (2-10 hours), Medium (10-25 hours), Large (25-45 hours), Epic (45+)

The final 4 games of the year, all on PC

- Endless Fables 3: Dark Moor - Dec 1
- Endless Fables 4: Shadows Within - Dec 1
- I love you, Colonel Sanders! A finger Licking Adventure - Dec 11
- Gris - Dec 27

Oh, Elven Legacy, that game was surprisingly good. If you enjoyed that, I can highly recommend Fantasy General 2, which was released last year.



As for games beaten in December 2019 for me:

South Park: The Fractured but Whole: Fun, but it did overstay its welcome a little bit. I think I would have liked it more if it was the same length of the previous game.
Total War. Rome 2: Finally got around to beating the grand campaign in this one. Enjoyable, but like in all other TW games, the AI leaves a bit to be desired. Still has really satisfying tactical combat.
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard: Short and cute P&C adventure game about a frog who's also a detective
Shovel Knight: King of Cards: The latest entry in the Shovel Knight saga proves that there's still a lot of life left in this one. Excellent level design, and the new moves for King Knight were enjoyable.
Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory Disappointing CRPG based on a pen & paper RPG that I love (my avatar is from that franchise)
Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach - Legacy of the Weirdboy: Considerably shorter than the base game, but still really fun. This was an excellent DLC that let you play a faction with a playstyle that's very dissimilar to to the faction from the base game.
LEGO Jurassic World: It's a LEGO game. if you've played one, you know how this works. Shockingly bad sound quality, but otherwise enjoyable.

I have the first one don't own the second one yet, might look it up thx.

Elven Legacy was indeed suprising good.

Dec 04 Pokémon Puzzle Challenge (Rating 8/10 | 5h) Game Boy Color
Dec 09 Pokémon Sword (Rating 8/10 | 26h) Nintendo Switch
Dec 10 Pokémon HeartGold (Rating 10/10 | 63.5h) Nintendo DS
Dec 12 Pokémon Emerald (Rating 7/10 | 23h) Game Boy Advance
Dec 16 Mini Push (Rating 7/10 | 4min) Browser
Dec 16 Bloons TD (Rating 5/10 | 25min) Browser
Dec 18 Unravel 2 (Rating 9/10 | 4h) PC
Dec 28 Final Fantasy XV: Episode Gladiolus (Rating 4/10 | 1h) PlayStation 4

December
3rd - Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon [3DS] - 6/10
15th - Halo: Combat Evoled [Xbox One] - 5/10
19th - Halo 2 [Xbox One] - 4/10
22nd - Halo 3 [Xbox One] - 7/10
23rd - Halo 3: ODST [Xbox One] - 4/10
24th - Halo Reach [Xbox One] - 5/10
26th - Halo 4 [Xbox One] - 7/10
27th - Halo 5: Guardians [Xbox One] - 8/10
30th - Luigi's Mansion 3 [Switch] - 7/10
30th - Mario Kart: Double Dash!! [Wii] - 6/10

Finally managed to play through all the Halo games for the first time, been wanting to do this for years - turns out the key to getting through the first couple of games is to do it co-up, makes it much more bearable.

Halo 5 is the highlight this month, the control changes they made make everything so much more playable.
Halo 2 is the low point, my god this story was hard to follow at times, and the outdated controls made it hard to play.

Finished in December 2019, ranked by what I enjoyed most (top to bottom):

Halo: Reach MCC
XCOM2: War of the Chosen
Bad North: Jotunn Edition
Superhot
A Short Hike
The Stanley Parable
Journey

Shout-out to Bad North in particular. It's a game I haven't seen a lot of people or reviewers mention much, but I really enjoyed it. Similar somewhat to Into the Breach, only more focused I think.

In December I finished the following 5 games:

1. The Talos Principle
2. Super Mario Odyssey
3. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of the Elusive Age Definitive Edition
4. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
5. Spec Ops: The Line

All 5 were stunning experiences, and I heartily recommend them all. DQ11S in particular joined my All-Time Favorite list.

Just one game: Wonder Boy The Dragon's Trap, very cool!

Death Stranding - best game of 2019 for me, great story and gameplay.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - very good, but very long cutscenes.
Resident Evil 2 (2019) - great remake of a true classic.
Mario Kart Tour - It's okay.
Steep - good winter sports game, beautiful environments.

Phoenix Point: Very good tactical shooter. A little buggy but still a breath of fresh air from XCOM.
DOOM(2016): Had to get ready for Eternal, fast paced, adrenaline pumping FPS, exactly how I like them.
Hades: Still kinda playing this one but technically completed. Very solid roguelike with a good progression system.