New post! I got rather busy after testing this last year but with a new year and a new set of resolutions, I’m ready to try this again.
I accomplished a lot gaming-wise last year. For the first time, I kept track of every game I bought, how much I paid, as well as the date I obtained the game. I did this for my beaten and completed games too. So the stats rundown?
New games: 23 retail, 13 free/gift/borrowed
Beaten games: 29
Completed games: 11
Money spent: $410.60
Now this may not include EVERY game I came across this year. A lot of Steam games I left out until I actually played them. :x (For example, I bought a few indie packs of 5 games on Steam and only intended to play 2-3 of them. If I ever played the other ones, I added them to the list but otherwise they went unchecked.) I’m going to go into detail with lists after this so click more to see that if you’re interested.
New Games
Grey is unbeaten, green is beaten, and yellow is completed. :)
| Game Title | Console | Date |
| Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep [JP] | PSP | January 13 |
| Psychonauts | PC | January 26 |
| Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth | DS | February 11 |
| Pokémon Trozei | DS | March 11 |
| Pokémon HeartGold | DS | March 14 |
| Final Fantasy XIII | PS3 | March 14 |
| Pokémon Blue | GB | March 20 |
| Picross 3D | DS | April 14 |
| Guitar Hero 5 | PS3 | May ? |
| Halo 3: ODST | 360 | May 31 |
| Tales of Eternia [EU] | PSP | May 31 |
| Trauma Center: New Blood | Wii | June 1 |
| Gears of War | 360 | June 1 |
| Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales | DS | June 1 |
| Rogue Galaxy | PS2 | June 1 |
| Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY | PC | June 12 |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | PC | June 26 |
| Left 4 Dead | PC | June 30 |
| Ben There, Dan That! | PC | June 30 |
| Time Gentlemen, Please! | PC | June 30 |
| Plants vs. Zombies | PC | July 4 |
| Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks | DS | July ? |
| Trauma Team | Wii | August 4 |
| Wii Music | Wii | August 4 |
| Left 4 Dead | 360 | August 15 |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 360 | August 21 |
| Tales of Innocence [JP] | DS | September 3 |
| Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep | PSP | September 7 |
| Professor Layton & the Unwound Future | DS | September 17 |
| Pokémon Black [JP] | DS | September 20 |
| Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood | 360 | November 16 |
| Recettear | PC | November 25 |
| Puzzle Agent | PC | November 25 |
| And Yet It Moves | PC | November 25 |
| Epic Mickey | Wii | December 25 |
| VVVVVV | PC | December 25 |
Finished Games
I’ll list everything I beat OR completed, along with a little blurb about it. :)
Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (Beaten January 4th)
I think of all the KH games, the first one might be my least favourite, but playing the updated FM made it a lot better. Skipping cutscenes when I died was excellent and I liked all the additions. I just wish I’d chosen defence to bolster in the beginning instead of magic. :( I didn’t even get guard until after the second half so I struggled a lot most of the way through.
Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ (Completed January 7th)
Following my success in finishing the first KH, I actually managed to do the VERY LAST THINGS I needed for completion in order to see the short for Birth by Sleep. I was right down to the wire when I did this if you check the date I received BBS in the mail. :x
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Beaten January 29th)
So much KH in the beginning of the year! This took me a few weeks to wrap up. I never did manage to complete this one. :(
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Completed March 4th)
After KH I might have been video game’d out for a while, hence no major progress, but I did finish up this game in time for Pokémon HeartGold.
Pokémon Trozei (Beaten March 12th)
…I also finished this Pokémon game in time for Pokémon HeartGold.
Pokémon Blue (Beaten March 21st, Completed March 22nd)
Technically it was in the same stint… I think? Regardless, I rushed this on an emulator in 100x speed. It was a lot of fun.
Pokémon HeartGold (Beaten April 6th)
I believe my excuse for taking so long with this Pokémon game was the fact that midterms were in full force during the timeframe it came out. :( I also didn’t like Johto as much as I remembered. I played mainly because of the Cherubi/Cherrim on my team that I traded in from Diamond.
Trauma Center: New Blood (Beaten June 8th)
Another huge gap, this one due to exams and then work. I played through this on co-op with my brother and it was our introduction to the series. I had a blast and we’ve now got all the Wii games (with one we haven’t played yet). It’s ridiculously over-the-top plots with great gameplay.
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (Beaten June 9th)
There we go, two games in a row. Excellent. This game was adorable and great for rush hour traffic.
Guitar Hero 5 (Beaten June 25th)
Played this over a few nights with my brother. I’m not a huge fan but it was an easy game to just toss on the beaten list, haha.
Plants VS. Zombies (Beaten July 12th)
A friend had been hounding me to get this game for about a year and I caved when it went on sale on Steam. I loved it so much. I’ve never really played this sort of tower defence game before so it really pulled me in easily.
Left 4 Dead (Beaten July 13th)
Same Steam sale. I got obsessed with this game when a friend finally bought me the sequel on Steam. I had to buy this almost the next day. I beat it sooner.
Picross 3D (Beaten July 17th)
This was not as good as the original Picross. I don’t like this in 3D.
Final Fantasy XIII (Beaten July 21st, Completed August 31)
Started this way back in April and it took me forever to beat, then even longer to complete. I loved the battle system and the fact that all the sidequests were battles is likely the only reason I did them. My main party was Lightning, Fang and Vanille. (I love all-female parties in the more recent FFs.) I had a lot of fun with this.
Tales of Eternia (Beaten July 30th)
I borrowed this from a friend in May. I hated the battle system, the plot was mediocre, but I liked the characters so I stuck to it. I ended up playing the last few hours on auto so that I wouldn’t have to bother controlling anyone. And I’d been using a caster, too, so all I had to do was STAND THERE. Yeah, I hated the battle system that much. Good game otherwise, though.
Wii Music (Beaten August 5th)
A fun toy. My review is one of the few things actually on this blog. :P
Dissidia: Final Fantasy (Beaten August 10th)
I wasn’t very good at this game until I started using Terra, who was the very last person whose story I finished. XD; She’s a bit cheaper than everyone else, with ranged magic attacks so I excelled. :P
Left 4 Dead (Beaten August 17th)
I bought the 360 version because I liked the PC version so much and most of my friends are console gamers. ‘Nough said.
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Beaten August 27th)
I loved Phantom Hourglass and everyone told me this game sucked in comparison, but I finally gave it a try. It wasn’t as bad as everyone says but I do agree it’s not great.
Left 4 Dead 2 (Beaten August 29th)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Beaten August 29th)
Dropping them together. Both the PC and 360 ones were beaten in the same day, with the Parish campaign being the last thing I needed. :p
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Beaten September 1)
This was a long time in the making. x_X I played the beginning like… 5 times. Finally made it past chapter 3 this time and enjoyed the game, though the battle system was awful (Wii controls are horrible, ugh).
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Beaten September 10)
And time for the English version! I actually got to the point where I was only one or two Arena matches away from completing this game by the end of the year but alas, didn’t get the chance. :(
Professor Layton & the Unwound Future (Beaten September 19, Completed November 12th)
Yay, Layton! I rushed to finish this before Pokémon came out and did it. I went back after I was done with Pokémon and finished each puzzle I missed.
Penny Arcade: Episode 2 (Beaten September 23rd)
I was so heartbroken to finish this and learn there was no third game! ;_;
Resistance: Fall of Man (Beaten October 11th)
My brother and I wanted something to play together during Thanksgiving and this was the only co-op game we had with us. It turned out to be okay though we had to play on Easy and we still sucked.
Pokémon Black (Beaten Nov 1st)
My first Pokémon game in Japanese! This was interesting, and I won’t be importing another game ever again because I didn’t enjoy it as much, but it was a good learning experience. Got a few new favourites from the game, though thankfully nothing overtook Cherrim.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Beaten November 24th)
To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to this. I still haven’t even touched multiplayer, but I did finish the single player campaign and I really enjoyed it. I just wish there had been a longer gap between this and AC2. If this is an annual series I’m going to get sick of it…
Half-Life (Beaten November 28th)
This took me so long. I’m horrible at the game! I’d barely do anything every time I’d sit down to play for an hour. Eventually, when I was about halfway through, I went “fuck it” and turned on cheats. I tossed on invincibility and never looked back. I started having fun with the game and I still sucked at it so I don’t feel too bad.
Recettear (Beaten December 7th)
This was a surprise. It was in an indie pack on Steam for $5 so I bought it and that was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. This is a gem of a game and I recommend it to everyone. It’s quite the time sink though.
Puzzle Agent (Completed December 8th)
I beat this in a night. I really hope there will be more installments. This had an amazing ambience and while the puzzles were pretty simple and short, the plot more than made up for it. I’m just glad I didn’t pay a lot for it…
Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (Completed December 12th)
This ending confused me. I don’t remember a lot of parts of it, meaning I started to doubt if I ever actually did beat it way back when… but I also distinctly remember handing over every single mask and obtaining the Fierce Deity’s mask. But I would have had to complete the game before this to get that… right? o_O Oh well.
And Yet It Moves (Completed December 18th)
An interesting game but I probably wouldn’t play it again. I found it pretty frustrating at times and boring at others. I don’t regret playing it though.
VVVVVV (Beaten December 27th)
Again, a friend wanted me to get this and I didn’t want to pay the full price for it so I got it during Steam’s Christmas Sale. It’s fun, even if I suck at it and died over a thousand times while beating it. (Whyyy did it have a death counter??)
Trauma Team (Beaten December 29th)
My brother and I started this back in… November, I think. We made it all the way to the Autopsy part before we couldn’t go on and then had to put it on hold until I was home for Christmas break. I only liked the operation one, the diagnosis one, and my surprising favourite, the emergency response one. Everything else was annoying. Especially endoscopy. GODDAMN YOU ENDOSCOPY.
Ben There, Dan That! (Completed December 30th)
The end of this year made me realize how much I like puzzlers and point-and-clicks. I really, REALLY liked the dialogue in this. It’s just a shame the sequel is more vulgar for no real reason. (This is wittier and I definitely prefer it.)
………..phew! I believe that’s all. This year was really good for my gaming. My resolutions for next year are pretty much to spend less ($400 is almost as much as rent has been most of the year ._.) and to beat/complete way more than I buy. It’d also be nice to beat everything I buy but I’m iffy on that one so far. Regardless, I hope it’s an even better year than this one.
