The Jan 2014 GAME FINISH thread! -- so it begins again!!

[JasonPratt]

Last year I went for several months on a schedule of finishing at least five games (previously unfinished) before buying a new one. (I think. My memory's kind of fuzzy on that. Let's just pretend I managed to do that and move on...)

Then I succumbed to Steam sales and Gamersgate and GoG and thanks a lot, Grogheads.  :P

This year I'm not really setting a goal of finish-to-buy because I bought so many games last year I think even that would be irresponsible of me, so I'm going to try to go as long as possible without buying a new game at all. (Rome 2 and its current DLC was my last purchase for last year during the Steam sale.)

Forthwith, I am resurrecting the monthly GAME FINISH thread series from last year (a little early since I usually posted it on the first Monday of the month.) Join me in finishing games!

Recently I've finished:

Dawn of War 2: Retribution (also the original DoW1 campaign, and close to finishing Winter Assault again)
um....
yeah, that's pretty much it for the past month or so. Before then I only finished a couple of games in November, primarily Arkham Origins.

[JasonPratt]

Annnd finished DoW1:WA tonight. It's been, gosh how many years since I played itNOIREFUSETOFEELOLLLLLDDD!!!

[Slick Wilhelm]

Good luck in your endeavor, Jason. I've just come to the conclusion that I will likely never finish most of the games I purchase. The last one that I remember finishing is Forge of Freedom a few years ago. For me to finish a game, it really has to grab me....and hold me.

Sadly, I'm too interested in supporting wargame developers that I tend to buy nearly anything that certain development shops produce. So, I keep buying and buying with the noble intention of playing them all. My current backlog of about three years will attest to my success at living up to that intention.  ;D

[-budd-]

I'm down with this thread.....no new games until next fall sale......I swear. I'm 48 hours into DAO and on the home stretch for the main story line and have completed about a dozen side quests. No idea what i will play next...yet....i did start Batman Arkham Asylum so might go there next.

[JasonPratt]

I didn't quite feel like migrating back over to something else yet, so I restarted another DOW Dark Crusade campaign: I've never beaten it with the Space Marines, and since it fits into the overarching Blood Ravens story of the series (and they canonically win on Kronos) I figured I might as well scratch that itch a little more before shifting over to (probably) XCOM:EW. Then I may finish my Soulstorm campaign (perhaps -- I can't remember why I stopped it last year) with the Imperial Guard since they won; and then I'll have caught back up again to the DoW2 storyline (already finished).


Slick, I know what you mean about supporting wargame devs; I've bought a lot of games I may never play, simply because I wanted to reward them for making what looked like a good effort on something I could appreciate! (But I might get around to playing more this year, since technically they're still "new" games I've already bought.  :D )

As for "finishing", I think I forgot to mention in the OP that I count a game finished if I've played it 20 or 25 hours and just don't care to play it anymore, even if I haven't completed the campaign or whatever. I might come back to it later, or maybe not, but I consider it finished: I've gotten my worth out of it.

(And games I don't care enough to play anymore after several hours at all, I also consider finished in a different way. ;) But for my stricter purposes last year I didn't "count" them toward the total before buying a new game.)

Budd, ooooh, I could easily play all three Arkham games two or three times a year (though I try to hold it down to once a year.  ;D ) About 10 hours each, minus the Riddler sidequests which aren't really worth it storywise except in Arkham City anyway. Very doable, and AA has a much more linear (and so propulsive) storyline than the other two, so once you're good with the controls it should keep your momentum up.

[JasonPratt]

Nothing new (or even old) finished this past week, but I spent it playing through most of a campaign of XCOM:EW. I think "most-of", it's hard to tell. I have the key for the alien base assault but I've been leveling up four mechs with a pair of snipers before going in; and for all I know this is only the first alien base assault mission. I've stayed pretty spoiler free on how the game develops, despite the base game being out for a little more than a year. (Which I picked up, like this one, from a relative as a Christmas present, and never finished.)

I accidentally skipped the mission in Newfoundland where a coastal town's population had vanished, but I don't seem to have suffered anything for missing it. I'm curious about whether this was a winky-nod to Terror From the Deep, though...

Anyone actually finish a game last week? (Haven't bought anything new since Rome2 around NYears. Baby steps, baby steps...  :D)

[-budd-]

not finished yet, but 63 hours into DAO and on the home stretch of the main quest with about 3 dozen side quest complete. I have one more people's to get on board to fight the blight..... just got finished putting a king on the dwarf throne, now i got to get the elves on board. I understand they changed the game type for DAO2..... what the f**k for, I'm really liking the battle system in this game and was looking forward to looking into DAO2..not anymore if it went to FP perspective.  I tried to like the strictly turned based battle system of other games but it just doesn't do it for me. Any other fantasy rpg party based third person perspective games with pausable real time battles out there? Guess it would have been simpler just to say any games out with DAO's system ;D

[airboy]

I finished a game of Conquest of Elasyium on a large map.

[Gusington]

I am about to finish a Panzer Corps Barbarossa campaign and I have finished several Unity of Command scenarios.

[skeptical.platypus]

Amateurs.

I just finished an ARMA3 scenario (SP), and for the first time went almost five minutes without being shot, blown up, or otherwise seagulled. Beat that!

There's a reason why MC Hammer doesn't sue me for my harem pants.

[Gusington]

Just finished the Edelweiss scenario in Unity of Command, but lost...was short just one objective :/ What an addictive game. Any game that can make supply of an army tense and fun is good in my book.

[Sir Slash]

So I managed a minor victory in CMBN's German Kampgruppe Engel Campaign-- Battle 3. Doesn't sound like much but for me it's a real accomplishment. This battle's as hard as my ex-wife's Pot Roast! Your weak kampgruppe, 2 Platoons, 4 tanks, a 75mm AT gun, 2 Half-tracks and a handful of engineers, get a King Tiger tank as reinforcement. The catch is it's 300 meters in front of your start point and un-manned. You have to escort the crew to it and then get it out of there with a avalanche of Americans coming down on you-- a Battalion of infantry(500+) a company of tanks,some with 76mm and 105mm guns, and a ton of arty. The Germans have 2 81mm mortars. Then it gets better. You have to keep the Americans out of 3 large victory zones for the entire 45min. scenario as well as exiting all of your forces off the map before the end of the battle. Any Germans left on map at the end count as victory points for the Americans. I literally got my last unit off with 8 seconds left in the battle. Along the way, we inflicted 277 casualties on the Amis, including 170 KIA and took-out 24 tanks and 2 AC's. Not too shabby for 11 KIA and 11 wounded on our part with the AT gun, a Mk.2 panzer, a HT, and 2 trucks lost. Now that we've spanked the Americans good and proper, it's the Canuks turn next. 8)

[MengJiao]

Amateurs.

I just finished an ARMA3 scenario (SP), and for the first time went almost five minutes without being shot, blown up, or otherwise seagulled. Beat that!

There's a reason why MC Hammer doesn't sue me for my harem pants.

  On an unfinished note:  I went back to ARMAIII because it got something new in the development area (unfinished!).  I went back into a scenario that I had made (unfinished!) switched sides (why?) added some armor.  I arrived and was lost somewhere on the big island.  A friendly vehicle ran over somebody behind me and I ran toward the enemy to try to stay safe.  Over in enemy land, something huge exploded and an immense pillar of black smoke came into view.  (I'm not sure what that was -- quite possibly a tank falling into a house due to unfinished deployments in the scenario design).  My combat team was more lost than me and kept demanding to know where I was so I changed roles with a recon man and took off into enemy territory.  Eventually there was a pretty big battle -- though not quite big enough since I was killed trying to find it.  I switched sides and was blown up.  I switched sides again and drove a truck with a machine gun around town until a tank hit me with machine gun fire.  I took the Cheeta (dual 35mm AA) and was busy leveling the town (enemy AT missiles were surprisingly helpful and collapsed whole buildings around me.  Eventually the tank got me.  I switched to the tank and drove around.  Everybody was dead.  I got out and found a few of my earlier selves shot to bits.  There was no feeling of closure or finish.  I think the scenario needs work.

[-budd-]

82 hours later....DAO... finished...well i didn't do all the side quests but quite a few. Quality game, i can see myself going for another play through in the future. I've started alot of fantasy RPG's in the past, i think this and Oblivion are the only ones i would consider finished.



Hmmmmm....whats next? I think something shorter :)

[Gusington]

I got so damned close to finishing DAO but I couldn't beat one of final battles, afte the elections/usurpations IIRC.