I'm actually playing it for the second time right now lol.It's not a bad game at all but it hardly captures the magic of previous two entries.

Yeah, I definitely used save states, if only because I usually took my time with the levels and never really had enough time to go through the game in one sitting. I'd probably have the same trouble with the Labyrinth Zone for that reason as well... although the emulation of the game wasn't perfect either with it slowing down quite a bit whenever there was an underwater section with a lot of enemies or things going on.

Well, if you only used save states to continue playing where you left off, that's one thing. I only consider it "cheating" when you use save states as a "quicksave" option to basically give yourself infinite lives and/or manual checkpoints.

And while I don't remember what that was like on the original Genesis, I think it's likely that the emulation was perfect, which is the reason for the slowdown. Modern consoles aren't the only ones with framerate issues when things get hectic.

+ Hammerwatch (2nd run)

Cognition - Episode 3: The Oracle
I didn't enjoy this episode as much as the first two. Mainly because a second playable character is introduced and there iis a little too much switching between the two characters and not enough focus on Erica Reed in my eyes. Also it felt shorter than other episodes (or maybe it was just easier). But in the end there is an interesting plot twist and so I'm looking forward to see how the series will end.

Complete list of finished games in 2014

Castlevania-Circle of the Moon
I find that the gimmicks of the GBA Castlevania games are just annoying. Having to grind to get cards was annoying, and if I didn't have the internet to tell me which enemies dropped cards, it would have been insufferable. Grinding for souls in Aria of Sorrow? Also annoying. It's like, the developers were aware that people liked the RPG elements of Symphony of the Night, but they drew all the wrong conclusions from that.

Faerie Solitaire
This I liked; a nice, relaxing game that I will continue to occasionally play. It was sometimes a little silly how incredibly dumb the hero is, though.

Finished spelunkey in the normal way.Brilliant game,hard,random.Very recommended.

Just finished DuckTales Remastered. Not a bad rendition of the old NES/Gameboy classic, although some of the level design was certainly showing its age. The new final level certainly blended well into the happenings, although the tacked-on very last section of the final level pissed me off no end, because you only have two lives for the whole level and losing there will force you to play the whole fucking level again.

Graphics and sound were absolutely superb, and while the story interludes were somewhat distracting, it was an interesting bit of nostalgia.

Unfortunately I've been playing mostly games that have no real ending, Banished & Civilization V. I did however finally finish up Super Mario 3D World on the WiiU, at least as much as I am going to. Finished all the worlds, including the four bonus worlds but haven't beat every level with every character or topped the flagpole on every level, so I am not at 100%, but I never will be, so...

Yeah, I generally dislike when people I know insist, "You didn't do everything, you didn't beat the game."

This is me at the moment too. Sometimes if I want to have a goal to work for I set a sort of arbitrary end point for when I will consider a game finished. Earlier this year I completed a space victory in Civ IV and used that as an excuse to add it to my list, even though of course I'm not done playing the game. But I rarely (read: basically never) complete games to 100%, and that's fine with me.

Damn, my previous and more extensive reply was eaten by my router that for some reason decided to take a dump just when I posted my message. Oh well, for short:

I put the game away after I reached the stadium level. The gameplay isn't nearly as satisfactory as in the original games for some reason, any of the pathetic attempts to imitate the original series' style felt like a parody written by a teenager for his first Flash cartoon. I never liked the change in scenery but I wanted to give it a chance - but turns out that it actually was based on an utter misconception of what Max Payne is about, just as anything else Rockstar tried doing with the game. For me Max Payne 2 was and will remain the conclusion of Remedy's amazing series.

It's been over two months since I finished a game. I was on such good pace at the beginning of the year. I gotta pick it up!

I finished KAMI today. It was a pretty fun puzzle game. The graphics are beautiful, as is the music. I thought it was a fun and simple concept, and was always satisfied when I completed a puzzle. I thought the difficulty was just right - not ridiculously easy, but not impossible either. Any moments that could have been frustrating were soothed by the pleasant atmosphere.
The one complaint I have is the hint system. I needed hints for some of the later, more difficult levels. You have 10 credits a day, and hints cost 3 credits. (Obviously this was set up for micropayments on mobile devices.) So you have to wait a day to get more hint credits. It is pretty annoying.
Despite that one gripe, it is a fun and pleasant puzzle. It took around 6 hours for me to get "perfect" on every puzzle. I'll keep it installed because it is a decent game to play when I'm anxious.

Full list

Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard

Pretty average game overall, but mostly because of the bugs and, at times, unpolished and unbalanced feel of the game. It definitely seems like this one was rushed out the door a bit too soon. But hey, dungeons and dragons rts style, can't complain about that too much, although I wish it was worked on a bit more before being released (perhaps with an Umbragen campaign included as well). I especially enjoyed the dungeon exploring, at times even forgetting there was rts related stuff to do above ground. It also seems like this game would be pretty fun with multiplayer, but I haven't tried that yet. For any new players to this game, remember to use the hot keys (tab) and F1-F6 to cycle through abilities and items rapidly. Also, focus on upgrading and building 2-3 captains at most. I lost mission 2 or 3 a bunch of times before figuring this out. After doing so, the rest of the campaign missions were pretty easy, and I don't remember losing once except maybe in the final mission.