Nick Prosch online

games (wip)

Years pass by and every now and then people discuss the “good ole times” of gaming. Ever dropped the line “You fight like a dairy farmer!” next to a wannabe gamer?

Dwelling in memories I thought about starting a list of games I played. It will never be complete, just something to keep a vague track of my gaming career.

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As this list became incredibly large I divided it into decades:

• 2000s (how do you say 00ties?)
• 90s
• 80s

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2013

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Singularity (2010) (PS3)

First person shooters being played with controllers are a pain in the ar*e. I do not play PC games any more, but nothing compares to keyboard/mouse controls in FPS IMHO. Anyway, I made it through this weird game, it has some nice concepts of time manipulation, but in the end it’s just a mediocre shooter. Pretty dull, pretty short, yet still somewhat fun. No NG+ btw, which sucks big time! No replay value -> shelved!

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Monkey Island Special Edition (2009) (PS3)

Pretty much all my recent play time belonged to the Souls series. When I got bored PvPing I figured why not give an old classic another go. So I fired up the special edition of Monkey Island and played it again. It’s is very well done, except for the occasional freezes.

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2012

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Midnight Club L.A. (2008) (PS3) (replay)

OMG OMG OMG this game kicks ass so hard I cannot express my feelings in words. Replay started because of a.) new speakers and b.) Forza Horizon envy. Dared Rob to find prove MCLA devs worked on Horizon and said I’d buy an Xbox 360 if so. Let’s wait and see if he can ‘convince’ me.

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Dishonored (2012) (PS3)

Finally I game that dragged my away from my Dark Souls obsession. Beautiful, cunning, challenging. A very nice game that consoles me for not getting a proper Fallout 3 PS3 experience (The Fallout 3 GOTY edition with all the add-ons sucks balls afaik).

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Dark Souls (2011) (PS3) (replay)

This time I started over with a Dex build. Let’s see how it works out.

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Batman – Arkham Asylum (2011) (PS3)

Only played this game for a couple of hours. Quite nice, but pretty dull. Switched back to Dark Souls instead …

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Ultima Underworld 2 – Labyrinth of Worlds (1993) (PC) (replay) (Win 7 / DosBox 0.74)

The Ultima Underworld series has been one of the greatest gaming experiences I encountered. I am proud to say that I have the complete Ultima (1-9) and Ultima Underworld (1+2) games sitting on my shelve. I also own a copy of “The Savage Empire”. Yet back in the days I only played “Ultima 4 – Quest of the Avatar” and both Underworld games. Maybe I find the time to play the rest of the series when I am retired Thank you DosBox guys!!

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Edna bricht aus (2008) (PC)

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Super Mario Galaxy (2007) (Wii) (replay)

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HλLF-LIFE² (2007) (PS3)

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Portal 2 (2011) (PS3)

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Archibald’s Adventures (2010) (PSP)

A platform puzzler that reminds me of titles such as Lemmings, Rock’n Roll, and Lost Wikings. Available for quite a few platforms @see homepage. A very nice casual game that can be quite challenging from time to time.

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Demon’s Souls (2009) (PS3)

After getting the Dark Soul Trophy I had to finish Demon’s Souls as well. Pure Bladestone, you mf pita! It’s a pity I still don’t get why my summoning is such a disappointing experience. Even though I enabled port forwarding on the designated PS3 ports I rarely get summoned yet on invasion ppl often are accompanied by one or two phantoms. This is the case in both Demon’s and Dark Souls. I don’t get this … anyway, these games changed my gaming standards forever. I can hardly play anything else at the moment (tried “Kingdoms of Amalur”, tried “Two Worlds” shelved both after a couple of hours)

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2011

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Dark Souls (2011) (PS3)

After falling in love with it’s predecessor I was sure to pre-order the limited edition of Dark Souls. Gameplay is basically the same with a few changes and enhancements. No more going back and forth to the Nexus just to level up, no more pouches full of herbs you don’t need, and you will have a full health bar even if your are “Hollow”. Let’s see if the first impression lasts … I just got started with this beauty.

… a few weeks later …

Wow. Yesterday night I achieved my second PSN Platinum Trophy – this should prove that this game made a serious impression I can hardly imagine playing something not as hard and challenging as Dark/Demon’s Souls now. No more “walk in the park”-RPGs for me

I feel unable to describe the game in a few lines that live up to the experience, hence I will not give a review. Only one remark: if you are anything close to a serious gamer who is into RPG or dark fantasy in general – order this game today and prepare to die!

Here is a series of pretty kewl shots of the game. Enjoy.

Favourite
- weapon: Moonlight Greatsword (no more shield slicing, yet S intelligence bonus)
- shield: Eagle for protection, Silver Knight for beauty.
- armour: Xanthous King, Jeremiah set with Crown of Dusk
- spell: Homing Crystal Soulmass
- stat: Intelligence
- covenant: Blade of the Darkmoon
- boss: Dragon Slayer Ornstein & Executioner Smough
- NPC: Siegmeyer of Catarina
- voice acting: Charlie Cameron ♥

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Demon’s Souls (2009) (PS3)

I heard quite a lot about this game before I dared to play it. Incredibly hard, very frustrating/rewarding and only for the most die-hard players. A friend of mine got the game as a free give-away for purchasing a new PS3 and now that he played it I got curious again. And oh how much fun this game turned out to be.

The first couple of hours I was at my limits. In fact I thought I was doing something wrong, missing on a save option and not understanding game mechanics. It’s just how the game works. You can die basically any given time (trap, enemy, cliff) and you will loose all your xp/souls if you cannot make it back to the place of death without dying again. So dying really hurts and is not just a matter of loading a saved game and trying again. Funny thing: I got so acquainted to that fact that in the end I was playing Demon’s Souls with a constant heart rate of 70bmp – I enjoyed it a lot! I shelved the game with a three-digit soul level, NG+ and world tendencies played at both extremes.

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The Legend of Zelda – A Link to the Past (1992) (SNES) (replay) (ZSNES)

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Dead Space 2 (2011) (PS3)

Dead Space 2 is a great horror shooter. It feels more “open world” than part one, has a smarter upgrade system and let’s you fly (rather than only jump) through space. Nice. What I dislike is EA’s pretty annoying and persistent way of trying to make me register. I DON’T WANT TO. (I have to confirm that every frickin time I want to play this game!)

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L.A. Noire (2011) (PS3)

Playing L.A. Noire was a lot of fun for a little while, but it lacked the wit and pace of Rockstar’s previous masterpieces such as GTA 4 or Red Dead Redemption. The same question and answer games over and over again after picking up random clues … sorry, this was not my cup of tea.

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Angry Birds (2009) (Android / PS3)

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The Saboteur (2009) (PS3)

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Bully (2006) (PS2)

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Prince of Persia (2008) (PS3)

Oh this game made me sick. I played it to the very end, hoping the boredom would cease over time, but it did not. After getting used to the beautiful watercolor looks and mastering the three arts of jumping, wall running and “Elika bouncing” you just hop from area to area, knowing you have to do everything at least twice to collect light bulbs after you cleared another fertile ground. And there is literally no change in gameplay during the whole game. Even the boss fights are as repetitive as one can imagine. They are basically all the same. Block. Hit. Combo. All. The. Time. I. Can’t. Stand. This. No. More. IMHO this game is by far the worst instalment of the POP series by now. Keep it shelved.

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Grand Theft Auto – Episodes from Liberty City – The Ballad of Gay Tony (2010) (PS3)

Finally I found the time playing this ingenious episode of Liberty City mayhem. Here you get a rock solid GTA ride, guns, cars and a lot of crazy dialogue / characters (Yusuf Amir FTW!). Highly recommended.

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Super Metroid (1994) (SNES) (ZSNES)

Nintendo “action” games never really convinced me. I was used to the fast paced games of the Commodore Amiga era. The clumsy game mechanics of e.g. Castlevania or Probotector made me feel like plaining in a strait jacket (…it was the time I repeatedly played the Turrican series at least once a year – nothing compares ). This is the reason I never gave Super Metroid a chance. Metroid Prime was the first Metroid game to prove me wrong. I loved all three GameCube instalments, I disliked the DS and Wii version due to quite arbitrary controls (I am more into old skeewl button mashing than waving a controller in front of my telly – except for the brilliant Wii port of Resident Evil 4). Anyway, sitting at home in rainy Germany I gave Super Metroid a try and played it for a few consecutive weekends. It’s not a Turrican surrogate even though the screenshots may make you think that. Metroid is a lot slower, more exploration / grinding driven and it’s impossible to listen to the soundtrack for longer than 5 minutes … again, nothing compares to Turrican (Hi Chris!). Still, worth giving it a shot, even nowadays. Enjoy!

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The Legend of Zelda – Phantom Hourglass (2007) (Nintendo DS)

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Super Mario 64 (1997) (Nintendo 64) (replay) (Mupen64Plus)

Sitting at home with a bad cold during my working holiday I replayed this beauty. I used Mupen64 and a PS2 controller connected with a USB adapter to my mint box. Works pretty flawless, a few flickers here and there, but hey, gameplay is near perfect.

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2010

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Fahrenheit (2005) (PS2)

Oh, what treasures my old PS2 collection holds. The perfect game for a snowy post Xmas pre New Years time killing. It can be considered a Heavy Rain predecessor, it’s been done by the same development team (Quantic Dream) and also can be considered more like an interactive film rather than a game. Soundtrack was composed by Angelo Badalamenti (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive) which also supports the slow, beautiful and sometimes even depressing atmosphere of the game.

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Echochrome (2008) (PSP)

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Dead Space (replay, trophy hunting) (2008) (PS3)

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Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare (2010) (PS3)

Rockstar Games, Cowboys and a Zombie infestation. A must have!

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Echochrome (2008) (PSP)

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Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition Move (2010) (PS3)

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Lego Rock Band (2009) (PS3)

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Secret of Mana (1994) (SNES) (replay) (ZSNES)

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Wet (2009) (PS3)

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Star Wars – The Force Unleashed (2008) (PS3)

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Red Dead Redemption (PS3)

Fancy a game of poker that ends up duelling your opponent on the street? Go for a ride or catch a wanted man? All at your hand playing RDR. Not as catchy as the masterpiece GTA4, but still another quality Rockstar game you can enjoy for ages. The atmosphere is great and you really feel like becoming a gunslinger a few hours into the game.

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Grand Theft Auto – Episodes from Liberty City – The Lost and Damned

OMG, the PS3 community had to wait sooo long for this till then XBOX exclusive title. I started with the first add-on The Lost and Damned and had a good time playing the game. My wife played Gay Tony and I guess this episode is even better.

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Resident Evil 5 DLC “Lost In Nightmares” & “Desperate Escape” (PS3)

These episodes pimped the game a little bit, giving us the opportunity to play at the location of Resident Evil 1 and reveal some more background information on Resident Evil 5.

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