30 Days of Games

[VashTheStampede]

Crap i meant to start this yesterday



Each day, come on in and answer the prompt. If you miss days, just go ahead and list all the ones you missed!

To start off:

My First Video Game: Super Mario Bros.
Most Hours in a Game: The Binding of Isaac

 

[Fire Queen]

first video game: civilization ii but if we're not counting pc games then probably super mario world and kirby's dream course on a hotel's pay-to-play snes that i racked up a massive bill on lol

most hours in a game: my behemoth football manager 2012 save has been going strong for over thirteen years now. across those years i've racked up over two thousand hours in it. some of it is idle time, sure, but you don't make it to the in-game year of 2074 just idling. i had a pretty in-depth diary going on in the sports games forum back on the old GW but those records are probably lost to time. my manager has been at the italian club Siena for sixty in-game years now and they've won numerous accolades. in real life, Siena has gone bankrupt like three times in the last ten years and they're currently fighting to make it out of Serie D. before one of those bankruptcies, though, i did manage to order a custom Luca Longo #10 jersey. this player exists nowhere except my save file, where he was a homegrown player who was a linchpin in Siena's transition from Serie A also-ran to Champions League contender

 

[Crystal]

First Game: Super Mario Bros 2? Might've been 3?
Most Hours in Game: Civ III, hundreds upon hundreds of hours, can't remember specifically, but it's insane.

 

[Benzine]

First Game: Hercules
Most Hours in Game: Counter-Strike: Source

god now i gotta think about the hardest boss fights?

 

[VashTheStampede]

First Game: Hercules
Most Hours in Game: Counter-Strike: Source

god now i gotta think about the hardest boss fights?

Yeah there's a few of these that are gonna take some thinkin for me and that's one

 

[Benzine]

I know we can of course answer them all in our own ways, but how do I know which way to take it? Is it hard doing all the grinding and levelling required for some bosses? Or just a memory you have of a game where you turn up to a boss too early and it's crazy hard to beat them (like in Megaman battle network i'd run into some stupid stuff crazy early in the game and then spend days on the emulator trying to win?).

 

[Benzine]

is a time trial ghost a boss? there was one course on crash team racing where i just struggled, and it's memorable.

 

[dimmerwit]

First game: Some DOS games. There was a F1 one and a snooker/pool one that I remember most clearly. I didn't own a console until the PS1 in either 98 or 99.

Most played game: Dota 2.

most hours in a game: my behemoth football manager 2012 save has been going strong for over thirteen years now. across those years i've racked up over two thousand hours in it. some of it is idle time, sure, but you don't make it to the in-game year of 2074 just idling. i had a pretty in-depth diary going on in the sports games forum back on the old GW but those records are probably lost to time. my manager has been at the italian club Siena for sixty in-game years now and they've won numerous accolades. in real life, Siena has gone bankrupt like three times in the last ten years and they're currently fighting to make it out of Serie D. before one of those bankruptcies, though, i did manage to order a custom Luca Longo #10 jersey. this player exists nowhere except my save file, where he was a homegrown player who was a linchpin in Siena's transition from Serie A also-ran to Champions League contender

I remember seeing you play tons of this on Steam. Glad you continued it.

 

[dimmerwit]

Also, the DOS F1 game was Grand Prix Circuit, which I've just learned was designed by everyone's favourite Xbox One goon Don Mattrick.

 

[Quagmire]

First Game

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Jurassic Park

I had played other video games at friends, but got this for xmas during first grade


Most Hours

Crusader Kings 2

I have over 300 hrs, cant imagine another game that comes close

 

[dimmerwit]

Did you try CK3? I tried it on Game Pass and enjoyed it, having played mostly EU in the past.

 

[Quagmire]

Did you try CK3? I tried it on Game Pass and enjoyed it, having played mostly EU in the past.

Yeah I didnt like it at start, but have played it recently and I like it. There are things I like more about CK2 vs CK3, but with mods and such now I dont think Im gonna go back to CK2

I played a bunch for a bit, now Im CK3'ed out so probably wont play for awhile, but have 40hrs in it now

 

[Benzine]

Oh it's actually the third here already.

The hardest boss I've faced is a guy called FiSH in css. We showed up to the scene at similar times, played together, and then went our separate ways onto bigger and better teams as we got more skilled. Every scrim or match I played against whatever team he was in with whatever team I was in, he'd beat me. Bastard. He's a boss.

 

[Quagmire]

Oh it's actually the third here already.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

First Game: Not really sure. My dad had an old Atari machine, but I don't remember if we ever got to play games on it. It's possible Pac-Man was a game we played at some point. We also had an old computer that loaded games from 5 1/4 floppy discs that I ended being gifted as a hand-me-down. We had games like Centipede and Prince of Persia, as well as some game show games like Wheel of Fortune. My cousins in Ohio had Nintendo consoles, but I don't recall playing on the SNES when we visited them. I mostly recall the Ski Resort level from Vigilante 8, so my computer games definitely happened well before thar.

Most time played? Super Smash Bros Brawl, Dynasty Warriors 3, Diablo 3, and Overwatch, are my most played games. Couldn't tell you which one I played the most. BF3, BF1, CoD MW2, and CoD Black Ops are up there, but not as much as Overwatch.

 

[Christina]

First game: Kaboom! On the Atari. At least the first memory I have of a video game. We did have Breakout but I think I remember playing Kaboom! first. I was like 4 years old so cut me some slack.

Most hours would easily be Isaac.

 

[Benzine]

First Game: Not really sure. My dad had an old Atari machine, but I don't remember if we ever got to play games on it. It's possible Pac-Man was a game we played at some point. We also had an old computer that loaded games from 5 1/4 floppy discs that I ended being gifted as a hand-me-down. We had games like Centipede and Prince of Persia, as well as some game show games like Wheel of Fortune. My cousins in Ohio had Nintendo consoles, but I don't recall playing on the SNES when we visited them. I mostly recall the Ski Resort level from Vigilante 8, so my computer games definitely happened well before thar.

Most time played? Super Smash Bros Brawl, Dynasty Warriors 3, Diablo 3, and Overwatch, are my most played games. Couldn't tell you which one I played the most. BF3, BF1, CoD MW2, and CoD Black Ops are up there, but not as much as Overwatch.

ow would be my most played game in the last 10 years! i'mma play some now

 

[Quagmire]

Hardest Boss Fight

This is a tough one for me to figure out

Sonic 2 final level is two bosses back to back with no rings

MGS3, not really a super hard fight, but he first time I played it I didnt have a good camo, ran out of time the first time and won within 10 seconds the second time

Kingdom Hearts, the Sepharoth fight is insanely tough on the hardest difficulty, but I did pull it off

Im sure there are others, but nothing jumps out at me, the infamous boss from KH at Hollow Bastaion wasnt a problem for me, nor were the two infamous ones from FFX.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Hardest Boss Fight
I'm sure there's a boss out there that was total bullshit and I just gave up, but I can't think of one off the top of my head.

I guess I'll say Lu Bu in the Hu Lao Gate levels in Dynasty Warriors games is probably the hardest one I managed to beat. Lu Bu isn't supposed to be defeated. He is purposely designed to be nigh unkillable because that is his legend. You are meant to meet him in the early level as a totally underpowered character and become so overwhelmed by the total lack of damage that you do to him and the amount of damage he does to you that run away and let the 3 sworn brothers handle him. In later games it became easier to dispatch him because they likely nerfed him, but in DW 2-5, he was practically impossible to kill. You had to rely heavily on other soldiers and officers and your bodyguards to distract him while you recovered HP and musou. Unless you waltz in there with a highly leveled character, you'll likely wipe him out quickly, but at the level you are intended to fight him at, it takes a LONG time. Lots of tedious slashing, lots of blocking, lots of soul searching.

Bison in SF2 was total bullshit, too. Dude could spam his specials, and in the fighting days of old, the AI were input reading bastards. Anyone who played a lot of Mortal Kombat or any early KoF game knows full well the bullshit of input reading AI. Bison was really the only one in the SF games where it seemed like he was reading your inputs (at least on easier difficulties).

 

[VashTheStampede]

Im sure there are others, but nothing jumps out at me, the infamous boss from KH at Hollow Bastaion wasnt a problem for me

Okay I guess I'll try to think of another one so I don't feel so inferior

 

[Christina]

I'm counting it as a boss. The Cathedral Boss rush room in Tunic, where it takes all your equipment away.

 

[dimmerwit]

I don't play many games with tough boss battles. I think Lu Bu from DW3 is a good shout even if it's optional, and I guess you can cheat a bit by going back with a more powerful character.

I did finish Cuphead, so it'd probably be something from that.

 

[Quagmire]

Okay I guess I'll try to think of another one so I don't feel so inferior

It's a fun fight, if you use block and roll at the right time it's a fun fight, not easy, challenging, but felt fair to me

 

[Spiner202]

Great thread idea!

First Game: the first one I have a memory of is Goldeneye. I know that's a bad choice for however young I was, but I'm pretty sure that's what I played first.

Most Hours: this is a tough one. As a series, I'm certain it would be Madden. In terms of one game, I would guess it's Warzone. I played pretty consistently almost every day for 2+ years.

Toughest Boss: I don't have a good answer for this one. I looked back through my list of games I've played, and every boss that gave me trouble as a kid seemed less difficult as an adult. I feel like modern games always have a way to cheese hard bosses. The hardest games I've played (mostly SNES stuff) was as hard because of the environments as they were because of the bosses. Even in Souls games, the bosses that are hard in one play through somehow are easy in a different play through and vice versa. In Bloodborne, for example, Blood-Starved Beast was one of the hardest bosses for me the first time around, and impossible later, but Shadow of Yharnham was one of the easiest bosses in my NG play through and just brutal in NG+.

 

[Smacktard]

First video game: Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt combo game. What a game to start with. Maybe one of the reasons 2D Marios are my favorite games of all time.

"Most hours in" game: One of: Counter-Strike 1.6, Morrowind, or, more recently, Mario Maker 2. I think Mario Maker 2 was around 750 hours, so they're all probably in that range. I played the SHIT out of Morrowind.

Hardest boss: That's a tough one, but I think the boss that made me die more than any other is probably Ornstein and Smough, and specifically when trying to kill Smough first. No other Soulslike boss caused me as many deaths as this. I must've restarted 30 or 40 times.

 

[Smacktard]

In Bloodborne, for example, Blood-Starved Beast was one of the hardest bosses for me the first time around, and impossible later

I've found so many Bloodborne bosses just need a cheesy trick to make them easy as pie. For the blood-starved beast, I really struggled too, until someone said to stay right beside its left side (when facing it from the front). It pretty much can't hit you there, even though you're right beside it and it's swinging all over the place.

 

[TD]

First Game
Honestly I don't remember. Duck Hunt or something like that sounds pretty accurate.

Most Hours in a Game
I've never really tracked the number of hours I've spent in a game if I'm honest but it's probably something like Ultima Online, played it for a long time, and last MMO I actually played. If not that, the Madden series.

Hardest Boss
This might be cheating but I'm going to say Pantheon of the Hallownest from Hollow Knight. Needing to consecutively beat every boss in the game (some of which are very challenging as an individual fight) was insanity.

 

[Smacktard]

Hardest Boss
This might be cheating but I'm going to say Pantheon of the Hallownest from Hollow Knight. Needing to consecutively beat every boss in the game (some of which are very challenging as an individual fight) was insanity.

I still have mad gamer envy that you pulled this off

 

[Christina]

Hardest Boss
This might be cheating but I'm going to say Pantheon of the Hallownest from Hollow Knight. Needing to consecutively beat every boss in the game (some of which are very challenging as an individual fight) was ininsanity.

This is similar to my Tunic one. Which is a mandatory boss rush room where they have taken away all your equipment you have earned. It's as far as I made it in the game, which I had found slightly challenging but nothing crazy up to that point. I have never been so raged at a game in all my life. I had to stop playing it and what went from looking like my game of the year has become I game I hate for this dumb fight. I'm still bitter.

 

[VashTheStampede]

In Bloodborne, for example, Blood-Starved Beast was one of the hardest bosses for me the first time around, and impossible later, but Shadow of Yharnham was one of the easiest bosses in my NG play through and just brutal in NG+.

Blood-Starved Beast was the final boss of my run...cause that's when I realized those games aren't for me.

Sitting for 2 hours trying to beat a boss isn't my personal taste of fun.

Got 'em though.

 

[VashTheStampede]

This is similar to my Tunic one. Which is a mandatory boss rush room where they have taken away all your equipment you have earned. It's as far as I made it in the game, which I had found slightly challenging but nothing crazy up to that point. I have never been so raged at a game in all my life. I had to stop playing it and what went from looking like my game of the year has become I game I hate for this dumb fight. I'm still bitter.

The game is basically a meme in our house now. My daughter and I do a lot of video game quizzes on YouTube and every time Tunic comes up, everyone says "MOMMY ITS YOUR GAME"

 

[VashTheStampede]

Hardest Boss: Nightmare of Caital, Princess-Imperial, Destiny 2

Very mechanic-heavy fight that took my fireteam countless runs to finally finish off. Especially rough because my Warlock and Hunter teammates were practically made of paper compared to my Titan so I had to carry the team more than I'm typically accustomed to.

 

[TD]

This is similar to my Tunic one. Which is a mandatory boss rush room where they have taken away all your equipment you have earned. It's as far as I made it in the game, which I had found slightly challenging but nothing crazy up to that point. I have never been so raged at a game in all my life. I had to stop playing it and what went from looking like my game of the year has become I game I hate for this dumb fight. I'm still bitter.

Tunic is a deceptively hard game at times. For a game that appears to be about a cute little fox with all kinds of intricate puzzles and a made up language, some of those combat situations are not what you'd expect in a game like that. I'm sorry you weren't able to get through that part - it really is a fun game for the majority of it.

 

[Crystal]

Hardest Boss -- Can I say me? I beat me so many times trying to clear bosses that turn out to be far simpler than I make them, I feel like I'm a harder boss to beat than any boss I've faced.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Hardest Boss -- Can I say me? I beat me so many times trying to clear bosses that turn out to be far simpler than I make them, I feel like I'm a harder boss to beat than any boss I've faced.

You should get a Mimic Tear, you'd be unstoppable

 

[Smacktard]

...I just remembered Owl (Father). I think I might've spent more time trying to beat him than Ornstein and Smough. I doubt it though, but this guy is a close second.

 

[Fire Queen]

hardest boss is tough. the final boss and namesake of hades comes to mind, both in terms of the fight you get on standard difficulty but definitely in terms of the increased-difficulty fight you can opt into in the postgame. i've only cleared it once and that is how many times i am ever going to clear it.

the final boss of mega man 9 was not only an ass but also something i couldn't savestate my way through. but i earned it

in ffxiv terms i've done some extreme synced raids and trials before. nailing extreme ramuh with seconds to spare with a group of randos was an experience

that's the fun thing about this category is that my three choices are from three completely different game genres

 

[VashTheStampede]

hardest boss is tough. the final boss and namesake of hades comes to mind, both in terms of the fight you get on standard difficulty but definitely in terms of the increased-difficulty fight you can opt into in the postgame. i've only cleared it once and that is how many times i am ever going to clear it.

Are you saying you only beat him once or only once on max heat?

 

[Benzine]

4: Currently playing The Bazaar mostly.

 

[Fire Queen]

Are you saying you only beat him once or only once on max heat?

i've got 75 clears under my belt but only one with the maximum Extreme Measures. i can typically handle Extreme Measures up to theseus/asterius just fine but that hades EM is no joke, especially the third phase

Spoiler: hades extreme measures 4 spoilers

when cerberus attacks

 

[VashTheStampede]

i've got 75 clears under my belt but only one with the maximum Extreme Measures. i can typically handle Extreme Measures up to theseus/asterius just fine but that hades EM is no joke, especially the third phase

Spoiler: hades extreme measures 4 spoilers

when cerberus attacks

Okay yeah, just making sure you got that real ending.

Hades is far and away my favorite game of the decade (and I think currently sitting at #3 all-time) but beating up Dad with the extra phase once was enough for me to be content.

 

[canadaguy]

First video game: super mario bros
Most hours in a game: DC Universe Online. Like an obscene number of hours. 1000s
Hardest Boss: My backlog vs Steam Sales. It won again this week!

 

[dimmerwit]

I'm not currently playing anything specific at the moment. Just dabbling mostly in MSFS 2024 and Cities Skylines II. I have Game Pass so no doubt I'll try this new Indiana Jones game, but I'd say this hasn't been the best holiday season for games.

Oh, and STALKER 2, but I'll wait for them to patch it even more.

 

[Smacktard]

Currently playing: Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. They're right there in my signature!

I'm just wrapping things up in XC3. Finally doing the arena. There's a sort of roguelite arena mode which I was annoyed to learn. I don't wanna do it but I'm trying to 100% the game. Slow and steady, I guess.

 

[Quagmire]

Currently Playing

Metaphor ReFantazio Not very far into it, but enjoy the vibes already. Wont be able to play again until this weekend

Dragon Quest VII Always wanted to give this a go, starting the DS port, also not very far into it, so no comment on it either

 

[Spiner202]

Currently Playing - Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Very happy with this. I kinda wish it wasn't near Christmas and there weren't so many sales going on so I could take my time a bit more with Horizon, but I already have a bunch of stuff I want to move onto (including the DLC for The Witcher 3, which I just bought yesterday).

 

[VashTheStampede]

Currently Playing:

Pokémon Shield - As seen here:

Nintendo - Name My Pokemon!

I have decided to start a playthrough of Pokemon Sword, and I thought it might be fun to have you wonderful people name my pokemon as I acquire them. My only rule is that I like my pokemon names to start with the same letter as their actual name. For example, if I got a Woolio, I would want it...

gwforums.com

3 gym badges in.

Final Fantasy XVI - Getting back into this after an extended break. Still feel like it's more of a Final Fantasy-themed action game than a real FF, but I really dig the battle system.

Metaphor: ReFantazio - Currently taking a break from this one as the story hits a little too close to home after the recent US election. It's  very good though.

 

[Quagmire]

Metaphor: ReFantazio - Currently taking a break from this one as the story hits a little too close to home after the recent US election.

Already picking up vibes and Im only a couple hours in

 

[Crystal]

Currently Playing:

Forza Motorsport, once in a while

MLB The Show 24, when @MC74 wants kick my ass

Yu-Gi-Oh Masters Duel, when @MC74 wants to kick my ass

 

[MC74]

NHL 24 with the Dallas Stars series I've been doing sparingly.

MLB 24 & Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel as Crystal mentioned above, and that's about it for now. I may look at going back to WWE 2K24 after I take a look and see if they've patched up a lot of the wrinkles that made the game difficult to get into.