Last game you finished, tell us about it

Just finished Hexen 2 (the GL version). This time I really made it through in about three days... looks like I finally know where everything is, including the Egyptian hub's crowns.
 
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I recently finished up Mafia. Not too bad, it had a nice narrative and looked good, but as a game it wasn't great.
There are far too many cutscenes that take over from the player's control right in the middle of a mission, which is frustrating, and the missions themselves are short with very long narrative cutscenes. Fortunately, the voice acting is extremely good so watching is ok, but I found the lack of player involvement frustrating.

The game has, for it's style, a somewhat unique approach to acquiring cars and driving around. Police will react to your speeding or reckless driving, and you either have to stop and pay a fine (but there's no money tracking, so it doesn't matter) or evade them which can be tedious. While the realism is initially welcomed, it gets hugely frustrating after a while to be driving slowly when you're trying to get a mission done.

What is neat is that because the game takes place between 1932 and 1938, you see the cars on the road changing and developing. And the city environments are extremely well done, but you can't really get out and randomly explore (as you can in GTA). It looks nice but it's all very much on rails and your time in the city is tightly confined.

The missions have entirely too much try, fail, repeat built into them. On the one hand it's nice to have to approach things tactically (you can't rush in guns blazing) and you often have to scrounge for guns and ammo after you run out), but as the game progresses enemies just become ludicrously hard to kill.

I picked this up because I'd heard good things about the game (which I'd previously vaguely been aware of) upon the announcement of Mafia 2 coming out. It wasn't bad, I did actually finish it, but nothing I'd ever replay.
 
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Jun 17, 2007
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Finally completed UFO:ET. Excellent game, although it lost some momentum while I was sans-computer for 2+ months. Lucky Day and I are planning on putting together a review for the Watch, so I won't spoil it here.
 
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I finally managed to finished URU, with the help of several walkthroughs I have to admit. But what a great game, I truly love the atmosphere :)
I've had the game for years, but never quite made it to the end, I'm happy I did now :D
 
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Oct 18, 2006
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Ireland
Just finished Hexen II: Portals of Praevus, and now I remember why I didn't remember anything of this addon (apart from the new player character, setting and boss).
Levels are very linear and consist mostly of long, winding corridors between three-room buildings. It's impossible to get lost and near-impossible to do things in any other sequence than the one, true sequence the level designers imagined.
While I did some serious running to and fro between levels in a hub in the original Hexen II and Hexen (and did curse the level designers quite a lot at times ;) ), there was nothing of this here - just sequential series of corridors filled with HP-heavy enemies, and perhaps a button to push at the end of said corridors. One of the few things I actually did remember was a 'real' puzzle - one where you had to visit three different places to find out what you're supposed to do, and how. But mind you, all three places were in the same level and rather close to each other, too, so... nothing special here, either.

Well, I loved the basic game, and I loved the prospect of playing in a Sino-Tibetan setting, but the designers of Portals of Praevus wasted a great opportunity to please me. No wonder it's my least-replayed of all the Heretic-Hexen games and addons. What a shame...
 
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Aug 31, 2006
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Half Life 2: Episode Two (8,5/10)
This is the first game I have finished in months since once school hit in, it was impossible for me to keep playing like I used to. This first break I decided to begin with a shooter since they do not require as much effort as the RPG's.
I was not a fan of the original Half-Life 2. Overall it felt rather repetitive, running through the same landscape, shooting the same combine soldiers/zombies over and over again. The physics were great but that was the only thing special about the game. The story in the original Half-Life 2 was almost non-existant, the NPC's not that interesting (except Dog) and overall the game felt like a rail-shooter in it's ultra-linear gameplay. Episode One was not much better.
Im happy to say that Episode Two managed to improve my opinions about the Half-Life 2 series. This time there was variation in the environments, there are more monsters now which brings HL2 closer to Half-Life 1. The story is much better and I started to get more in touch with the NPC's. The story in Episode Two also adds emotion, which is almost required for me to appreciate a story.
Still, Half-Life 2 Episode Two is a completely linear experience and the "Doctor" Freeman still never speaks, neither is his personality brought forward at all. He's supposed to be a scientist, but he's mostly a grunt. Since Episode Two is by no means an unique or outstanding game, I have to score it 8,5 which means "solid game, a little better than average but can be missed".
 
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Oct 26, 2006
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Final Fantasy X - 8/10 (PS2)
Finished this one last night, and I must say I'm impressed by the way just how manageable the game was even with the most difficult enemies. By this I don't mean that the game was easy... it wasn't. But quite opposed to what I thought for a very long time, it was *not* necessary to grind (something I absolutely hate). There was a sound strategy for every enemy. Opposed to what some people I know said about the game there was no need to have any party member at 50,000 HP, there was no need to acquire specific spells or skills or the Solaris weapons... unfortunately it took me quite a while to figure that out :). Plus, it made me cry. Way to go!
 
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Just finished Two Worlds and I really enjoyed it. As has been said elsewhere, it's a little on the easy side... but it was still a blast. Lots to do, and a lot of fun doing it. Tons of weapons and armor that are unique and fun.

I never play spellcasters so I can't speak much for the spells or magic system. The only spell I learned that I used was the healing spell. I also didn't do much with alchemy... I never really get into that when I play CRPGs.

I found many game changing quests, some related to the main quest and some not... which was a lot of fun. I took my time and scoured almost the entire world, and I think that really added to the fun of the game. There were quite a few out of the way places with some interesting stuff going on.

Perfect? No... Great? Almost... Really good and lots of fun? Definitely

If I had to give it a score I would use a 1 - 100 percent score and I would give it a solid 80%. I would have rated it higher if it would have been a little more challenging. I definitely consider the 40+ hours that it took to finish, leisure time well spent.
 
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Dec 8, 2006
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Ohio
Finished Puzzle Quest. I thought sure there was a plot twist coming given all the empty map, but perhaps that just points to a sequel/expansion. What a great game! Simple, and yet so addictive. The RPG angle gives some purpose to the puzzles, which helps control the repetition. I need to pick up Sunspear to enable his companion quests (I think I only had one leg left in his branch), otherwise I think I sucked every quest out of the game. I forged some very powerful items, but still had a dozen or so spells to learn. I figure the game will have replay value in the future, although I plan to put it away for a while.
 
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Oct 18, 2006
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Wrapped up Eschalon tonight. Well worth the money, although I'm not sure how much replay potential there is. I think the game has tremendous restart potential, given the strong urge to try different character builds, but I'm not sure you'd have to or want to push those builds to the end of the game. The ending cutscene was a little sudden and you can miss it entirely if you hit a key once it starts (dumps you to desktop, although not a crash).

I played an axe wielder with divinity skills. It worked out pretty well for me.

I guess I'll keep my last save handy in case it has some use for Eschalon 2.
 
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28.9 hours on the in-game clock, although I'd say with restarts and reloads I got close to 50 hours out of the game.
 
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That's pretty good, I'm just over 4 hours by the game clock myself!!
 
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*shakes head* I'm pushing 30 and I'm 90% sure I'm only about half-way. What is wrong with me? :blush:
 
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*shakes head* I'm pushing 30 and I'm 90% sure I'm only about half-way. What is wrong with me? :blush:
The story sort of "accelerates" as you go, IMO. I finished the last quarter of the game content in about 4 hours on the game clock. I didn't mow a couple of the end maps very well and I know of a few non-quest things I didn't complete. Then again, maybe you're just a lousy gamer... :D
 
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Final Fantasy XII 9.0
Finally... I started this at the end of the summer and I did not finish it until now. Except for skipping some of the best weapons and the four +1 million HP optional bosses, I finished everything there was in the game.
The twelfth game in the FF series makes a major improvement in mechanics and graphics. Playwise it's one of the best RPG's out there, reminding me more about an MMORPG than a single-player RPG and larger than many MMORPG's out there!
It is also the longest RPG I have ever played, beating games like Baldurs Gate II and Oblivion in gaming hours. Unfortunately the characters are not half as well presented as with previous games which I "only" gave this game a 9. The main character hardly have a role at all, it's he just along for the ride. Storywise it's pretty good though even if it's obvious they are deeply DEEPLY inspired by Star Wars.
 
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