Be Excellent To Each Other

Last year I tried to finish/complete 52 video games within the whole of 2013, a bastard busy November and December ruined my goal and I finished on an agonisingly close 49 games completed.

I'm going to try again this year and wondered if anyone else would like to join in.

Your way of finishing games may be different to mine, generally for me it's completing the story but for others it may be to get all the achievements/trophies. Also you may have different rules for each game, for example a game like FIFA that you can't really complete, I have decided that I either have to get all the trophies or to win Division 1 of the Ultimate Team Seasons mode.

Also you can complete games you've completed before and you can complete games that you have started in any previous year, it doesn't have to be a new game started this year. It can also be on any platform including mobile, and obviously cheating is pointless as your only cheating yourself as there is no prizes or anything. Just a reduced back log of games and sense of immense pride, achievement and self worth.

Anyway I'm going to update this original post when I've completed each game.


Completed Games 2014


1 - Need for Speed: Rivals (PS4) 08/01/14 - Completed both cop and racer career modes. 8/10, Best NFS I've played.
2 - The Last of Us (PS3) 10/01/14 - Completed main story on Normal. 9/10, one of the best single player story based games I've played.
3 - Gunpoint (PC) 13/01/14 - Completed all 20 missions. 7/10, great idea and funny dialogue. Very short and fairly easy.
4 - Beyond:Two Souls (PS3) 22/01/14 - Completed main story. 8/10, Heavy Rain with better acting and dialogue. Still not much game but the story is pretty good.
5 - Batman:Arkham Origins (PS3) 27/01/14 - Completed main story, but couldn't be bothered with most of the side quests. 6/10, these games are steadily getting worse, the first half of the game seemed like a real slog.
6 - Ghost Trick (iOS) 05/02/14 - Completed Main Story. 8/10, Great premise, dialogue and characters but can drag a little at times.
7 - The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (PC) 06/02/14 - Completed Main Story. 5/10, Mediocre Puzzle game, awful acting and dialogue that is almost so bad that it's good.
8 - Papers, Please (PC) 06/02/14 - Completed 5 or so endings. 8/10, original gameplay and setting, amusing yet dark as hell.
9 - The Room (Android) 11/02/14 - Completed all chapters. 7/10, lovely puzzle game, very well made, fairly short though.
10 - The Room 2 (Android) 18/02/14 - Completed all Chapters. 7/10, pretty similar to the original but happy for more of the same.
11 - New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS) 23/02/14 - Completed the main 6 worlds. 5/10, stupidly easy, ridiculously short, and the running seems a little off to me.
12 - FIFA 14 (PS4) 24/02/14 - Won Division 1 League title in on-line season. 8/10, possibly the best FIFA yet, let down by the removal of tournament modes and worst of all the removal of online guests.
13- Pokemon Thunder Yellow (GBC) 05/03/14 - Completed main story and collected all 3 legendary pokemon and Mewtwo. 8/10, nostalgia trip but still a great game, I never played any of the later ones properly but might be tempted by X/Y when it drops in price a bit.
14 - Rayman Jungle Run (Android) 11/03/14 - Completed all levels with all gems. 9/10, brilliant game, auto runs so no fiddly d-pad and just the right level of difficulty before frustration sets in.
15 - Rayman Legends (PS4) 11/03/14 - Completed the main 5/6 worlds to get to end credits. 8/10, loving the Rayman games at the minute, the musical levels are something else.
16 - Assassins Creed: Black Flag (PS4) 13/03/14 - Completed the main story. 6/10, like the Batman games I'm getting sick of these too. Felt the need to finish it since I've finished all the rest, although I didn't go for 100% like I usually do.
17 - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PS3) 13/03/14 - Completed the main story. 8/10, What a wonderful game, it's very short but it's often beautiful, clever, charming and heart aching.

Great idea! I'm probably going to be stricter than you on what constitutes finishing a game, but I no longer care about maxing achievements/trophies unless doing so is still fun.

I'm going to go for 12, so one a month - a much more realistic target for the amount I play.

I think my average is about six weeks per game so I'd never manage anything like 52.

Reach for the skies, chaps. Reach for the skies.

There's a snake in my boot!

This would be the ideal place for TheVision to post a link to his failure blog of playing but not completing a game a week.

Bloomin' kids.. Getting in the way.

http://www.52games.tumblr.com

This has made me realise that I generally play games that don't have an end as such. This is probably a metaphor for something I expect.

You're a cunt?

That's hardly a revelation.

Looking back at my games for 2013 to see how feasible this is, I managed to finish 23 games across 6 platforms.

Mac:
Papers, Please
Football Manager 2013 (not a game you can strictly finish, but I think clocking 87 hours is enough to count it)

PC:
The Stanley Parable
Gone Home

iOS:
Home
New Star Soccer (Game Center max until the latest update which added more achievements)

PS Vita:
Hotline Miami
The Walking Dead Season 1 + 400 Days DLC (max)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Urban Trial Freestyle
Virtua Tennis 4

PS3:
Diablo III
GTA V (100% single player; level 69 GTA Online)
Flow
Flower
Journey
The Last of Us
Linger in Shadows (max)

Xbox 360:
Red Dead Redemption (inc Undead Nightmare DLC)
Forza Motorsport 4 (57/58 achievements)
Max Payne 3
Sonic & SEGA Racing (47/50 achievements)
Lego Lord of the Rings (max)

52 might be a struggle, then.

I'm lifting my skinny fists like antennas to heaven.

Antennae
Heaven

No.

How much?!

In 2013 it turns out I completed 24 on PS4/PS3/Vita:

DmC, BF4, Proteus, Stealth Inc, Metal Gear Revenergenceer, Rayman Origins, Motorstorm, Dragons Dogma DLC, Rain, GTAV, Lone Survivor, Jax & Daxter, Spec Ops: The Line, Hotline Miami, Gravity Rush, The Cave, Uncharted: Golden summarts, Last of Us, Catherine, Dead or Alive 5, Thomas was alone, Guacamelee, God of War: Ascension

On the Xbox 360, a measly 9:

Bioshock: Infinite, Dishonoured, Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution, Far Cry 3, Lollipop Chainsaw, Halo 4, CoD: BLOPS2, The Darkness 2.

On iOS, 4 (I'd probably done a few more but just deleted them afterwards though):

Badlands, Pivvot, Bad Piggies, Home.

So...37.

And this year I've already completed 2:

Killer is Dead and Beyond: Two Souls.

My list is pretty different from what I thought; in my head I'd completed more stuff on the 360 than anywhere else but it actually skews a lot more towards the PC (I'd completely forgotten about PC games until myp posted his list!). It's also a lot smaller than I expected and a lot of the stuff I thought I did in 2013 was actually 2012. There's a non-trivial and uncounted amount of time spent playing games up to a certain point then getting bored/annoyed and not completing them (i.e. NIER, Darksiders 2, Guacamelee, Fez, Shadow of the Colossus, de Blob 2). I also haven't bothered counting any Android games apart from Stealth Bastard Deluxe because it's the only 'proper' one I can remember without trawling through the Wongawatch thread.

PC

• Mark of the Ninja
• Hotline Miami
• Deadlight
• The Cave
• Thomas Was Alone
• The Stanley Parable
• Proteus

Android

• Stealth Bastard Deluxe

Xbox

• Trine 2
• KoA: Reckoning
• Tomb Raider
• Gears of War 3
• Dishonored
• Arkham Origins

PS3

• ICO
• The Last Of Us
• The Unfinished Swan

I hit quite a bit of console gaming malaise in the later months of the year and just couldn't be arsed starting a new game after Arkham Origins. I'm now thoroughly enjoying Mass Effect 3 so am making good headway there, but the games in my unplayed pile I'm most interested in are currently on the PC. Which, ironically, makes me less likely to start playing them due to lack of couch/big screen/surround sound there.

I finished CoD: Ghosts, and a ridiculous amount of iOS things.

I completed:-

Xbox
Saints Row 4
Halo 4
Arkham Origins
Asuras Wrath
Dragons Lair
Renegade Ops
Karateka

3DS
Gunman Clive
Donkey Kong 3D
Ocarina of Time

and various Windows phone games but nothing substantial.

That list is bigger than I thought it would be.

Quite.

Quiet

Finished The Last of Us yesterday, I'm ahead of schedule already.

I managed to complete 28 games this year which is way better than the 10 in 2012. I put that down to less tv show watching in the evenings & gaming instead.

There is no way I could do 52 games in a year & I don't think I can even top last years 28. Most of this year is going to be spent on clearing up games on the 360/PS3 with the odd PS4 title now & again.

My main target this year is to try and reduce my spending on gaming. £2K last year was just stupid.

Even in a year that saw a new console generation that is a helluva lot, how did you even manage that?

I just finished Valdis Story and it's a damn fine metroidvania. Highly recommended.

Quite a few consoles purchased 3DS, Wii U Vita & PS4 will a hell of a lot of games. This year PS+ is going to be my main new gaming source & tackling the backlog. I will buy the odd new release for the PS4 but not until I've finished what I already own (Killzone & Knack).

The 49 games I completed last year.

3DS - 8/49

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Luigi's Mansion 2
Mario and Luigi's Dream Team
Mario's Picross (Gameboy Download)
Murder on the Titanic (Download)
Picross E1 (Download)
Picross E2 (Download)
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

DS - 1/49

Sherlock Holmes: Mystery of the Mummy

iOS - 3/49

Badland
Layton Brothers
Tiny Thief

PC - 7/49

Botanicula
Dear Esther
Hotline Miami
Little Inferno
Puzzle Agent
Puzzle Agent 2
The Stanley Parable

PS3 - 13/49

Catherine
The Cave
GTA V
Heavy Rain
Ico HD
Journey
Puppeteer
Saints Row 4
Shadows of the Colossus HD
Thomas Was Alone
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
The Unfinished Swan

XBOX 360 - 17/49

The Adventures of Tintin
Assassins Creed 3
Bioshock Infinite
Dead Space 3
Dishonored
Far Cry 3
FIFA 13
Gears of War 3
Gears of War: Judgment
Halo: ODST
Hitman Absolution
Mafia 2
Metro: Last Light
Remember Me
Spec Ops - The Line
Tomb Raider
The Walking Dead: Season 1

I finished Lego Marvel last week, so that's my January success!

Did you start it this year though? Does that still count?

Yeah you can start them whenever, it's about finishing games.

I've just finished Day 2 of Badland. Does that count?

So far this year, I have finished Gone home.

Which stretched my gameplaying skillz to the max

That's cool as there's loads of games that I've started but never finished. Rise of Nightmares springs to mind. I stopped playing it due to decorating and having no space to do it, I never went back to it and I reckon I'm near the end of it.

I have two missions left on LA Noire. I might just get a load of games almost finished and then reap the rewards in 2015!

Gunpoint finished, 3 down, 49 to go.

Update to my list.

Killer is Dead(PS3), Beyond: Two Souls (PS3), Badland Day 2 (iOS), Another World (iOS), Borderlands 2 (PS3) and now Prince of Persia Classic (iOS).

Prince of Persia Classic is almost the antithesis of Another World: It doesn't have classic graphics as well as the FUGLY updated graphics, it feels significantly more ropey than I ever remember the original being, stupid, stupid, stupid requests to "buy" extra lives, Keeps bothering me to "Like" it on iTunes, the buttons are unresponsive, the layout can only be changed along the bottom of the screen (rather than anywhere or in the top half), 2 of the control schemes are unusable (a "Slider Bar"? Seriously?), the combat is terrible, updated large baddies are terrilble, the fight with the skeleton no longer "works" - you can't even push him off the edge, I never managed to push anyone off anything or into anything, the new graphics for the falling blades are GARBAGE.

It's terrible. Another World got me into retro gaming on my phone and PoP has knocked me right back down. Garbage.

I played Another World again recently and thought it was awful.

It's essentially Dragon's Lair & Rick Dangerous with really nice vector graphics. Seemed futuristic at the time, and it's still pretty atmospheric, but doesn't really hold up well these days.

Pah! It's the spiritual predecessor of LIMBO.

Great graphics, sound and visuals combined to make the earliest example of cinematic atmosphere, easy puzzles, ace death sequences and a short run through makes a fantastic little story that's not out of character with some of today's mobile gaming.

I agree with Saturnalian

I like this. I'm in. I want to clear through a lot of great games before I buy many more. Dark Souls II excluded. Obv.

So far this year I've finished:

COD: Ghosts on the WiiU.

Meh.

And Terry cavangh's Don't look back

Ace.

I've finally finished Rayman Jungle Run on my phone. Glad that's done!

Borderlands 2: clocked. That's 5 for me but since I'll be playing nothing but Dark Souls 2 come March, I need a head start.

First game finished - The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess. Only took me 7 years.

Makes sense, since it's such a borefest, specially the beginning.

It picks up significantly as you go through but yeah, it's very boring for a first while. I wasn't such a big gamer when I picked it up so I ended up wandering away from it because it didn't grip me and only coming back to finish it like a year later.

On another forum there was a "what's the best game of 2013" post. I had no idea what games I'd played in 2013, let alone which ones were released and purchased in 2013. All of the games I considered myself "currently playing" in December 2013/January 2014 were all from 2012 or earlier. (In some cases, e.g. Doom, they're 20 years old...).

So I cobbled together a #gid=0" class="postlink">spreadsheet. It's basically anything I have on Steam, and so doesn't include things like games I've played for on my phone/tablet, or any IAP crap. But I plan to maintain the sheet and add all those non-steam games as I buy them. Hopefully I can see if I'm also spending 2k on games. One thing I have noticed is how many games have 0 hours playtime

Of all the games I played in 2013, I "completed":

• Doom 2: Hell on Earth (I pistol started each map on UV. Technically I finished this in jan 2014?)
• Final Doom + Brutal Doom. Fun and gory. (Technically I finished this in jan 2014?)
• Shelter (A short game about being a badger)
• Brothers a tale of two sons (A short game about being brothers, both of which are sons)
• Europa Universilas IV? (I "finished" at least one game, I guess that counts?)
• Mark of the Ninja
• Monaco
• Thirty Flights of Loving
• Far Cry 3
• LEGO Lord of the Rings (I nearly 100%'d that sucka)

I'd have more, but some games (e.g. Kerbal) are sandboxes and others (e.g. Rogue Legacy, FTL) I never bothered to polish off. (I.e. I never did the last bosses in either. CBA).

2014 doesn't look hopeful on this "completing games" front....

A spreadsheet... This I like.