RF Generation Collectorcast Episode 21

[Shadow Kisuragi]

What you mean it's not spelled moustache?! Or theatre?!

[Zagnorch]

Hey now,

It must be a western Canada thing to hold Link's Awakening as one's favourite Zelda game.

Just an aside, Crabby what's with your American English spelling? Are you embarrassed of the arbitrary placement of U's in British English?

[img width=681 height=463]http://cdn.masterstudies.com/element_db/65/655_AmericanBritish.JPG[/img]

Not to make the topic even more drifty, but... Crabby is actually an American agent assigned to turn the Canadian anglophones away from that bougeoisie international English, and towards the proletariat UnitedStatesian kind. His reward: a lifetime supply of Bud Lite, a $1,000,000 US Wal-Mart gift card, and free admission to any Disney theme park at any time of the day. Don'cha know, hoser?

BTW I ran into the -ense-versus-ence deal when I recently posted some James Bond 007 Licence / License to Kill movie memorabilia on eBay. Wasn't a big problem, though; I just put both spellings into each item title.

[Duke.Togo]

I live in America, and have always spelled it practice. I have never seen anyone spell it practise.

[Fleach]

I've always let Microsoft Office dictate my spelling. It'll accept the color vs colour type spellings without issues, but if I get those red squiggly lines I learn from my mistakes.

So can we start talking about our favourite/favorite games of 2013 now?

[Tynstar]

F7 for the win.

[Izret101]

I live in America, and have always spelled it practice. I have never seen anyone spell it practise.

Plus practice is not an -ence word.
Maybe ice and ence are the same endings in nonMerica.


What was this thread about again?

[Duke.Togo]

What was this thread about again?

Kinect Party
[img width=700 height=420]http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7326429/CloneOMatic.jpg[/img]

[MaterialHandlerMike]

It must be a western Canada thing to hold Link's Awakening as one's favourite Zelda game.

Just want to set the record straight. LoZ: Link to the Past, in my opinion, is FAR superior to Link's Awakening. Lttp, was, is, and probably always will be, my favourite Zelda and I dwell in western Canada. Feel free to call me out on my spelling. Both my Paternal grandparents were 'Merican.

[Duke.Togo]

You grandparents should have taught you better; it's properly spelled 'Murica.

[Zagnorch]

It must be a western Canada thing to hold Link's Awakening as one's favourite Zelda game.

Just want to set the record straight. LoZ: Link to the Past, in my opinion, is FAR superior to Link's Awakening. Lttp, was, is, and probably always will be, my favourite Zelda and I dwell in western Canada.

LoZ: LttP is still my personal fave as well, with Wind Waker a close second.

Feel free to call me out on my spelling. Both my Paternal grandparents were 'Merican.

Which might explain your G.I. Joe collection. G.I. Joe is a real North American hero... emphasis on the North.

You grandparents should have taught you better; it's properly spelled 'Murica.

F*CK YEAH!!!

[img width=90 height=110]http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y409/Zagnorch/Nupoile-TI_zpsaa040151.jpg[/img][img width=110 height=96]http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y409/Zagnorch/BilCAME_zpsdcf8284e.jpg[/img][img width=100 height=107]http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y409/Zagnorch/92d10548-8a4d-4b35-9cff-226f2e409b7c_zps43ace253.jpg?t=1396805513[/img]



Freedom is the only way, yeah


'Late

[Izret101]

Alright so i scrolled through the few hundred games i played in 2013

I was able to pull out ~15 games that really stood out. I cropped that list down a bit more to kick out things that were only enjoyable for 1 specific reason.

Honorable mentions:
 
THPS HD - doesn't quite recapture the original amazement of the first 3 games but the nostalgia was still there. It was great to be able to use tricks from later games on earlier game maps to string together even longer combos than i could back in the day. For the most part the "collectables" were an enjoyable challenge to grab too.

Midway Arcade Origins - Really can't go wrong with almost any classic/arcade compilation.

The Walking Dead - I think this only made the list because of the ending. That and the episode where you are on the farm(with the off limits barn) are the only two that still really stand out to me. On the whole it was great to play but the more time passes the less remarkable the the experience feels in my memory.
 
The Bridge - Super artsy puzzler. It reminded me of Braid in that sense. But it doesn't rely so heavily on time control. Also shorter and i enjoyed it more.

SoulCalibur II HD Online  - I loved running through this game again. I hit a couple roadblocks that i didn't remember from when i played it on Xbox. But again some of the charm was just missing. I didn't find myself trying to find the best weapon or running through with every character to get familiar with their attacks.

Shadow Complex - i had already done a 100% run a year or 2 ago. This time through i did the minimalist run and it was still really enjoyable but leveling unlocks certain things (like unlimited foam) so where sequence breaking was something people found out how to do in Super Metroid this game sequence breaking was essentially every persons second(and subsequent) playthru.


Top 5 (alphabetical order cop out)

Ascend: Hand of Kul - a free to play (which for a change was not a bad thing) 3rd person action RPG. When i started i was under the impression it was supposed to be an MMO but the interactions between you and the other people playing are extremely limited. But just running through the story completely free you can easily sink 30 hours into it. If you want to grind out levels, or souls for magic upgrades, or gear be aware that everything costs souls. Leveling is still XP based but learning new magic or upgrading existing spells costs more souls. Repairing/upgrading/buying weapons costs souls. After leveling X# of times you can ascend and change factions (Dark, Light, Void) to gain access to new abilities/spells while carrying over previous spells or certain items that you have made "legacy" items.

FarCry 3 Blood Dragon - Enough has been said about this game.

Gears of War: Judgement - I think this was my favorite game in the gears series. Which makes me an oddity since most people seemed to hate it. I liked the way the story was presented and i loved playing the co-op. It was awesome that you can play two stories. The official report and the classified details(which they actually call declassified). The previous gears games i don't think would have even made it into a top 10.

Singularity - If you see this game for sale grab it. The graphics were pretty tight, controls were solid, story was interesting.  Highly underrated and i actually read this story well after playing it and made me respect/like the game that much more after the fact. http://www.polygon.com/20...ten-months-to-clean-it-up

Sniper Elite V2 - Loved the way this game played. I actually felt like a sniper instead of a soldier who happened to have a sniper rifle. I am actually really excited for Sniper Elite V3


As i started putting the top 5 together i realized how much i was nitpicking with myself and pointing out all the flaws the games had as to why they didn't deserve to be there The first 4 i put in i did without too much difficulty. The hard part was getting the 5th one.





Also finally started listening thru the ep.(I have about an hour left) Cube movies were fantastic. AFAIK none of them have been on Netflix as long as i have had a subscription. I haven't seen them in years :-/

[Duke.Togo]

I can say that the Cube movies were on Netflix years ago, but I haven't looked lately.

Very interesting list you got there. I can't say I have even heard of half of them.

[Izret101]

I "played" something like 300+ games last year. It was easy to weed out TONS of them obviously.

I would have to agree with Borderlands 2 being a letdown for my personally. I had it preordered and played a bit but i wasn't sucked in like i was hoping. The first one i played through close to 10 times (between US and JP versions with different groups of people.) I will go back to it but hopefully with one or more people. But i don't think i played it at all in 2013.


Ascend could also get lumped into a letdown for the year. Since it is still technically in Beta i guess i can't be too upset that it didn't get the new story content that seems to be always on the horizon. Still no sign of the Badlands story line but they added some info about a Swamplands expansion and the PvP(which i am not a huge fan of)/Co-Op is also still in the works last i knew. Still for a free game it was fantastic.

BONUS!
Let downs for 2013

Castle of Illusion I enjoyed it quite a bit playing thru with my son but the controls did not feel precise at all. The game felt floaty most of the time. Had the the jumps felt more controlled i think this would have dodged the let down list.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons another letdown for me. People praised it as GOTY worthy but the fact that the characters "talked" like i was playing The Sims completely killed the experience for me of what was supposed to be an extremely emotional story.

Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know was by far the biggest disappointment (oops started that first week of 2014...)

Nexuiz makes the list for having servers shut down. (THANKS THQ!) It was like a highspeed version of Unreal Tournament.(Or maybe i just played UT on a slow PC 15 years ago lol) Nordic picked up the license if memory serves and they recently fixed the issue with the Darksiders 2 servers so maybe this will get turned back on some day. I should try touching base.


While skimming the list for disappointments i realized i missed Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 this should have at least gotten an honorable mention if not taking that 5th spot i was having trouble filling for top 5. Absolutely fantastic game. Dialogue does start getting recycled after a few games but there were just some things that made me laugh every time. Claptrap was generally involved... 

[retrosportsgamer]

2. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed (Wii U) - I'm not much of a racing fan unless its Kart racing. I like getting power ups, hitting speed boosts/jumps, and making the occasional crazy item induced comeback from last to first on the final lap. This game, which has a pretty stupid title, takes all that I love about Kart racing, perfects it and adds a huge heap of flare and nostalgia. We originally picked it up because at the time we just wanted another Wii U game and it was $20 cheaper than anything else. Its very rare that I feel like I underpayed for a game, but this  was definitely the case. The gimmick of the game is that, depending on which course you're racing, you can morph from a Car to a Boat to an Airplane mid race. Different levels have checkpoint areas that you pass through that change your vehicle (without slowing you down for a second) into the new vehicle type for the new area.

Having all the racers and levels based on a large variety of SEGA franchises was fantastic. Sonic Racing is packed to the hilt with fan service. Its just amazing speeding through levels based on After Burner, Golden Axe, Shinobi, Panzer Dragoon, Billy Hatcher, Sonic, Jet Set Radio, Samba De Amigo, NIGHTS Into Dreams, Burning Rangers, Crazy Taxi, etc. etc. etc. Since Sonic is the most recognizable SEGA franchise they have the most racers, but there is a lot of other characters to unlock such as NIGHTS, Alex Kidd, Ai Ai, BD Joe, Ulala, Vyse and many others.

The single player game is very challenging and rewarding. You have to get good at it and can't just luck your way through the game with good weapon gets. It takes a lot of practice to progress and unlock all the new levels and racers. The multiplayer was also fantastic and supports up to 5 people on one console with the Wii U version. We had several late nights, playing the awesome multiplayer modes both with younger players and same age friends.

Really can't recommend this game enough for any racing game fans and especially Kart racing or SEGA fans. Its hard to describe how incredible it feels to be racing through familiar landscapes that are dynamic and changing during each lap in order to both keep the level feeling fresh and also open up new ways to race past your opponents.

Couldn't agree more - plus one of the 5 players can race on the WiiU GamePad screen, something you can't even do on Mario Kart 8.

It is awesome for the WiiU and definitely one of the most underrated titles in its small library.