it is, yeah ... infinitely more so
just the fact that you don't have to deal with what goes on which side of the belt is MASSIVE
Reviews Rate the game you finished/retired
- Thread starter Ge0force
- Start date
it is, yeah ... infinitely more so
just the fact that you don't have to deal with what goes on which side of the belt is MASSIVE
Infinifactory is still my fav, a bit of a cross between factory and puzzle game
Finished. 11/10
My GOTY so far. Great atmosphere and sound and music. I LOVE it. Mundaun II please.
Retired Evil Genius 2
Played about 15hours worth. Its a nice base buildery game with a good hook, being the evil mastermind trying to dominate the world. Has a light-hearted humorous feel and nice cartoony graphics. The base building itself is pretty good, carving out a volcano to make different types of rooms for different tasks. You get all the usual things to go for - research/staff managing/defence etc. You'll get agents trying to infiltrate the base so you have to distract them or take them out. Progress is made by sending minions out on the world map to do 'schemes' which generate money. There is a sort of story/campaign that guides you along.
I liked my time with it but its a bit slow to get a lot of progress and there is a little to much waiting for timers to finish. Im going to wait for a few patches and maybe mods/QoL changes before going back to it but its a good little game.
7/10
Played about 15hours worth. Its a nice base buildery game with a good hook, being the evil mastermind trying to dominate the world. Has a light-hearted humorous feel and nice cartoony graphics. The base building itself is pretty good, carving out a volcano to make different types of rooms for different tasks. You get all the usual things to go for - research/staff managing/defence etc. You'll get agents trying to infiltrate the base so you have to distract them or take them out. Progress is made by sending minions out on the world map to do 'schemes' which generate money. There is a sort of story/campaign that guides you along.
I liked my time with it but its a bit slow to get a lot of progress and there is a little to much waiting for timers to finish. Im going to wait for a few patches and maybe mods/QoL changes before going back to it but its a good little game.
7/10
Finished Fractured Minds (Emily Mitchell / Wired Productions, 2017)
Once again, I feel there's no point in trying to do the bullet point thing for this one. Here's a quote from an interview with the developer:
You might have noticed that the interview is published on the BAFTA website. That is because the developer won a BAFTA Young Game Designer award in 2017 for it.
Here's a quote from the game's Steam page describing the game:
And that's really all you need to know. The game is cheap as it is, but a good deal would still start at 75% off.
2/5
Once again, I feel there's no point in trying to do the bullet point thing for this one. Here's a quote from an interview with the developer:
You might have noticed that the interview is published on the BAFTA website. That is because the developer won a BAFTA Young Game Designer award in 2017 for it.
Here's a quote from the game's Steam page describing the game:
And that's really all you need to know. The game is cheap as it is, but a good deal would still start at 75% off.
2/5
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Finished Whispering Willows
The art of this game is beautiful and the story isn't bad either. The puzzles are very easy though, and they really lack creativity. Only recommended for the narrative experience.
Score: 6.5/10
The art of this game is beautiful and the story isn't bad either. The puzzles are very easy though, and they really lack creativity. Only recommended for the narrative experience.
Score: 6.5/10
Finished the main campaign of WH40K: Inquisitor Martyr- still loads of content to go through.
7/10 - more if you're a WH40K fan
7/10 - more if you're a WH40K fan
Retired Dead Island
I assume when "retired" it means I stop to play it and I didn't finished it right?
Anyhow I wanted to go through games I started out and didn't finish it. So Dead Island was one of those games.
One word trash game. The game camera got me motion sick, so even though gameplay-wise it was kind of okay (traditional take quest style of game) I just couldn't bear it through just because the camera sucks...
I assume when "retired" it means I stop to play it and I didn't finished it right?
Anyhow I wanted to go through games I started out and didn't finish it. So Dead Island was one of those games.
One word trash game. The game camera got me motion sick, so even though gameplay-wise it was kind of okay (traditional take quest style of game) I just couldn't bear it through just because the camera sucks...
Metro Exodus
Pretty decent game overall. Similar to the first 2 but this time there is a bit of an 'open world' element, though this takes the form of a few open areas with various tasks to complete before moving onto another map. I liked it for the most part. Even with the switch to above ground and open world most of the main story has you going through some fairly linear paths (which i liked about the first 2 games). There is a lot of stuff underground as well.
I liked the weapon customisation but thought the having to collect resources to make bullets etc was a little pointless.
Very good looking graphically. A little clunky now and then with the controls (i use a controller, maybe Mouse and Keyboard would be better). There is a fair amount of talky talky bits which is fine if you like that sort of thing but i found myself skipping most of it (when you can). Took 16.5 hrs to finish. I didnt really bother with much side stuff or the dlc.
Got it cheap in the last Seal and im glad as this was the game that started all the eggs bollocks.
8/10 but im going to -1 for the eggclusivity so...
7/10
Pretty decent game overall. Similar to the first 2 but this time there is a bit of an 'open world' element, though this takes the form of a few open areas with various tasks to complete before moving onto another map. I liked it for the most part. Even with the switch to above ground and open world most of the main story has you going through some fairly linear paths (which i liked about the first 2 games). There is a lot of stuff underground as well.
I liked the weapon customisation but thought the having to collect resources to make bullets etc was a little pointless.
Very good looking graphically. A little clunky now and then with the controls (i use a controller, maybe Mouse and Keyboard would be better). There is a fair amount of talky talky bits which is fine if you like that sort of thing but i found myself skipping most of it (when you can). Took 16.5 hrs to finish. I didnt really bother with much side stuff or the dlc.
Got it cheap in the last Seal and im glad as this was the game that started all the eggs bollocks.
8/10 but im going to -1 for the eggclusivity so...
7/10
Finshed Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4 Pro)
Disclaimer: I finished the original game on dec 23rd 2020 according to the Steam cheevo, I loved it (think I gave it 9/10 and would still do), so my memories of the original game is still fresh, so my experience with the original game has no doubt affected my experience with the remake,.
Positive things first. The graphics are for the most part great and in some areas straight up gorgeus, however certain objects looks kinda muddy/unclear in certain places like the devs forgot to add textures to them and in the later chapters the city of Midgard looks straight up like a JPEG, laughed at that. However overall the grapgics are great. The music is nice, but certain melodies was annoying to listen to. I liked mostly the music that I remember from the original game, overall the music was decent overall. I did laugh when Barrett at times started singing the original game's finishing music theme when enemies have been defeated and since the game's combat isn't turn based I somewhat missed the finishing music from the original game.
The combat and in general the gameplay was fun and good during the first 5-8 hours (took me about 24 hours to finish the game), but then it got really repetive and boring regardless what sort of materia I used (materia is some sort of weapon upgrades giving you access to new abilities you can use, you pickup materia throughout the game, you can also buy them and unlock materia through challenges given by NPCs). Well I did not ever quite fully understand what materia is. The combat thanskfully never got fully repetive and boring, but it was not really something I looked forward to, combat was overall decent and okay, but a mixture of repetiveness, boring and uninteresting regardless what materia I used, what weapon I used and which character I played as.
I could play as different characters, Cloud had the buster swords (and other swords you pick up) which was the most fun, Tifa could kick and beat with knuckles/hands, Barrett could shoot with minigun and Aerith could use spells with her stick thing. I hated fighting as Barrett and Aerith, felt lack of impact on enemies and it was just frustrating. Weapons and armor are upgradable by using points (increase weapon abilities) and buying better armor. So upgrading weapons and armor was actually nice.
Considering Midgar lasted like 5 hours in the original game and I used 24 hours to finish Remake means made up story stuff and fillers and areas being too long for it's own good. I really disliked that. There are chapters that were completely uninteresting and fillers to get the game to be longer without needing to be. Areas that are too long and I really disliked that. The only good thing from the filler content is that some characters got more fleshed out, otherwise the pacing was really bad in many chapters, sometimes contant cutscenes that didn't have to be there, unncessary slow walks. Some of the chapters (at least 2) was filled with side quests, did some, they were okay, but nothing special. I did like how lively and good the town in Midgar look (again, great graphics).
I really disliked the pacing, the fillers, the too long areas, the slow walks, makes me not want to replay the game anytime soon, completely unnecessary.
Story was good and really interesting (at least the part I remember from the original game and some characters that got fleshed out), ending was super weird and I don't really have any thoughts on the ending other than "okay, let's see where this is going, it's gonna be weird, but Im optimistic". 2 deaths that I got sad over which I did not get sad over in the original (fleshed out characters) and another death which was really stupid because the character became alive like 5 min later again. I did know that the ending has been controversial, people expecting the original's ending, but what has happened feels like a sequel or a reimagine of the story, not a remake. Basically I don't know what to feel about the ending, but the fate of certain characters feels like a cop-out (Square "oh you think some characters are dead? well it's....complicated".). Too much crazy shit at the end that didn't make much sense to me.
Landing on a score for the game was much harder than I thought. The game overall looks great, sounds great (most of the time), world feels like it's living and because I overall liked the story (I really loved the original game because of the story), everything else feels either bad (fillers, pacing, long areas, slow walks), or just above mediocre (combat was fun, yet uninteresting and and somewhat repetive) or have really no feelings about (crazy ending and twists).
Score: 6.8/10
I thought about giving it a 7 or 7.5, but the more I think of how the original game played off in Midgar, the more I feel 6.8/10 is justificed for myself.
Disclaimer: I finished the original game on dec 23rd 2020 according to the Steam cheevo, I loved it (think I gave it 9/10 and would still do), so my memories of the original game is still fresh, so my experience with the original game has no doubt affected my experience with the remake,.
Positive things first. The graphics are for the most part great and in some areas straight up gorgeus, however certain objects looks kinda muddy/unclear in certain places like the devs forgot to add textures to them and in the later chapters the city of Midgard looks straight up like a JPEG, laughed at that. However overall the grapgics are great. The music is nice, but certain melodies was annoying to listen to. I liked mostly the music that I remember from the original game, overall the music was decent overall. I did laugh when Barrett at times started singing the original game's finishing music theme when enemies have been defeated and since the game's combat isn't turn based I somewhat missed the finishing music from the original game.
The combat and in general the gameplay was fun and good during the first 5-8 hours (took me about 24 hours to finish the game), but then it got really repetive and boring regardless what sort of materia I used (materia is some sort of weapon upgrades giving you access to new abilities you can use, you pickup materia throughout the game, you can also buy them and unlock materia through challenges given by NPCs). Well I did not ever quite fully understand what materia is. The combat thanskfully never got fully repetive and boring, but it was not really something I looked forward to, combat was overall decent and okay, but a mixture of repetiveness, boring and uninteresting regardless what materia I used, what weapon I used and which character I played as.
I could play as different characters, Cloud had the buster swords (and other swords you pick up) which was the most fun, Tifa could kick and beat with knuckles/hands, Barrett could shoot with minigun and Aerith could use spells with her stick thing. I hated fighting as Barrett and Aerith, felt lack of impact on enemies and it was just frustrating. Weapons and armor are upgradable by using points (increase weapon abilities) and buying better armor. So upgrading weapons and armor was actually nice.
Considering Midgar lasted like 5 hours in the original game and I used 24 hours to finish Remake means made up story stuff and fillers and areas being too long for it's own good. I really disliked that. There are chapters that were completely uninteresting and fillers to get the game to be longer without needing to be. Areas that are too long and I really disliked that. The only good thing from the filler content is that some characters got more fleshed out, otherwise the pacing was really bad in many chapters, sometimes contant cutscenes that didn't have to be there, unncessary slow walks. Some of the chapters (at least 2) was filled with side quests, did some, they were okay, but nothing special. I did like how lively and good the town in Midgar look (again, great graphics).
I really disliked the pacing, the fillers, the too long areas, the slow walks, makes me not want to replay the game anytime soon, completely unnecessary.
Story was good and really interesting (at least the part I remember from the original game and some characters that got fleshed out), ending was super weird and I don't really have any thoughts on the ending other than "okay, let's see where this is going, it's gonna be weird, but Im optimistic". 2 deaths that I got sad over which I did not get sad over in the original (fleshed out characters) and another death which was really stupid because the character became alive like 5 min later again. I did know that the ending has been controversial, people expecting the original's ending, but what has happened feels like a sequel or a reimagine of the story, not a remake. Basically I don't know what to feel about the ending, but the fate of certain characters feels like a cop-out (Square "oh you think some characters are dead? well it's....complicated".). Too much crazy shit at the end that didn't make much sense to me.
Landing on a score for the game was much harder than I thought. The game overall looks great, sounds great (most of the time), world feels like it's living and because I overall liked the story (I really loved the original game because of the story), everything else feels either bad (fillers, pacing, long areas, slow walks), or just above mediocre (combat was fun, yet uninteresting and and somewhat repetive) or have really no feelings about (crazy ending and twists).
Score: 6.8/10
I thought about giving it a 7 or 7.5, but the more I think of how the original game played off in Midgar, the more I feel 6.8/10 is justificed for myself.
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I completed both Doom Eternal DLC packs on Nightmare and sort of hated it. While Doom 2016 and the base Doom Eternal felt challenging, but fair, on Nightmare, the DLC goes overboard with mechanics that appear to spite the player. My biggest issue with the DLC is that new enemies are introduced which require one exact weapon and attachment combo to even damage them. This was already a concern in the base version of Doom Eternal, but in most of those situations the right weapon would simply make killing the enemy easier and not be mandatory. Some of the combat arenas are extremely claustrophobic which is a concern when having to fight multiple Cyberdemons alongside other enemies. Also the final boss is one of the most miserable and unfun bosses I have ever fought in a video game. I honestly would not recommend it.
Yakuza 4 (XSX, Game Pass)
It's more Yakuza really, at this point in the franchise you're either on board or not.
That said much like Y3, it is still a little rough going from Y0/Kiwami1+2 to the later games. Of course it's understandable why but neverthless many people are now experiencing the series in this fashion.
Two specific things for this title did annoy me though, but are admittedly minor
1) imo the storyline in this one is definitely the most complex and hard to follow, I feel the need to read a wiki now, which I didn't with the others. There's simply so many feuding factions and characters, double crosses, time jumps and conflicting motivations, with some stuff that isn't fully explained, that it's A LOT
2) I'm someone who plays these games for the story not the combat, so I stick with easy mode tbh. By the end of the game the enemies turn into sheer tanks. The final boss fight was utterly nuts in this regard, that it stopped being fun in any way and was just purely frustrating.
Doom Eternal Ancient Gods 2 (PC, Steam)
A bit easier than the last DLC, and that's not unwelcome imo, but still a blast.
The storyline continues to be the most nonsensical gibberish i've experienced in quite some time, and the last boss is sure to annoy people who hate the maurauder enemies
It's more Yakuza really, at this point in the franchise you're either on board or not.
That said much like Y3, it is still a little rough going from Y0/Kiwami1+2 to the later games. Of course it's understandable why but neverthless many people are now experiencing the series in this fashion.
Two specific things for this title did annoy me though, but are admittedly minor
1) imo the storyline in this one is definitely the most complex and hard to follow, I feel the need to read a wiki now, which I didn't with the others. There's simply so many feuding factions and characters, double crosses, time jumps and conflicting motivations, with some stuff that isn't fully explained, that it's A LOT
2) I'm someone who plays these games for the story not the combat, so I stick with easy mode tbh. By the end of the game the enemies turn into sheer tanks. The final boss fight was utterly nuts in this regard, that it stopped being fun in any way and was just purely frustrating.
Doom Eternal Ancient Gods 2 (PC, Steam)
A bit easier than the last DLC, and that's not unwelcome imo, but still a blast.
The storyline continues to be the most nonsensical gibberish i've experienced in quite some time, and the last boss is sure to annoy people who hate the maurauder enemies
Retired Graveyard Keeper...
Im giving up on Graveyard Keeper even though i quite like it. Its a sort of Stardew Vally-esque farming/building type game with the twist that you are a.....Graveyard Keeper. There are a lot of things to do like exploring/growing/constructing. It looks pretty nice. Has a sort of time cycle with certain things happening in certain seasons. Overall i like it but after 10 hours im finding it too much of a grind to unlock the technologies needed to progress. You need to generate these little colour pip things by digging/chopping/studying etc and im finding it slow going. There is a lot to the game though and it seems like it could get pretty deep. I may look for a mod in the future to dumb down the collection amounts but for now im shelving it.
6.5/10
Im giving up on Graveyard Keeper even though i quite like it. Its a sort of Stardew Vally-esque farming/building type game with the twist that you are a.....Graveyard Keeper. There are a lot of things to do like exploring/growing/constructing. It looks pretty nice. Has a sort of time cycle with certain things happening in certain seasons. Overall i like it but after 10 hours im finding it too much of a grind to unlock the technologies needed to progress. You need to generate these little colour pip things by digging/chopping/studying etc and im finding it slow going. There is a lot to the game though and it seems like it could get pretty deep. I may look for a mod in the future to dumb down the collection amounts but for now im shelving it.
6.5/10
Finished: A Plague Tale: Innocence
7/10
A third person action stealth game with some forced combat scenes where you have to kill. The final boss fight was crap and too different from the rest of the game. I had to watch a YT video to see what the game wanted me to do.
Beautful graphics and an ok story.
It's also the 50th game i have finished this year.
7/10
A third person action stealth game with some forced combat scenes where you have to kill. The final boss fight was crap and too different from the rest of the game. I had to watch a YT video to see what the game wanted me to do.
Beautful graphics and an ok story.
It's also the 50th game i have finished this year.
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Finished Celeste (PC, EGS)
I put my initial thoughts on this in the main thread, and for the most part they're still the same. Ultimately, it's a very solid and challenging platformer, in fact more challenging than I expected!
There are two key parts of the game I want to touch on though: the story and the difficulty.
Story wise I really appreciated this game, and I can see why people hold it in high regard. I felt it handled the personal story of someone battling with their mental health very well, and imo was much better than something like Hellblade (I mentioned that same comparison again in the steam thread, as this is another title that is frequently lauded for this and for little good reason imo).
It came across as a very personal story and the relationship between the main character and the "evil" counterpart was really well done imo
I think it's clear that the creator has put a lot into this.
On the difficulty aspect, it's really quite amazing how well this game caters to both extremes, with the accessibility options and the rock hard optional content.
I admit that about half way through chapter 7 the game had broke me and I had to use the assist mode to finish, but it didn't bother me too much; I'd gotten what I wanted from the game by then and continuing on as is was just frustrating me.
Imo, some of the screens ask too much of you to accomplish at once but that's just my take.
(special shout out to chapter 3 though for being such a big difficulty spike in the early game)
All that being said though,I had realised quite quickly from my experience and reading online that final 2 chapters (which require doing the optional content to unlcok) were going to be way too hard for me and would only be doable with me permanently using the assist mode. It's post-game/optional content so fair enough, but those same levels also have further story, and imo this is a bit of a dick move when the game is quite heavily story driven.
On a very similar note, the game tells you up front that the strawberries make no difference and are just for bragging rights, well that's just not true though.
It's very very minor but it does indeed affect your ending, and if I'd known that I would have made more effort to get strawberries.
Again, bit of a dick move, and I was quite disappointed and annoyed that this had come up at the epilogue.
On the whole though, I can't complain too much.
After all if I really, really wanted to do it then assist mode is there to let people see all that stuff, even if that then becomes a bit cart before horse imo. Personally I'm just going to youtube the extra levels.
Overall, it's a very well made game with a very affecting story, that elevates it beyond your typical "hard platformer"
I put my initial thoughts on this in the main thread, and for the most part they're still the same. Ultimately, it's a very solid and challenging platformer, in fact more challenging than I expected!
There are two key parts of the game I want to touch on though: the story and the difficulty.
Story wise I really appreciated this game, and I can see why people hold it in high regard. I felt it handled the personal story of someone battling with their mental health very well, and imo was much better than something like Hellblade (I mentioned that same comparison again in the steam thread, as this is another title that is frequently lauded for this and for little good reason imo).
It came across as a very personal story and the relationship between the main character and the "evil" counterpart was really well done imo
I think it's clear that the creator has put a lot into this.
On the difficulty aspect, it's really quite amazing how well this game caters to both extremes, with the accessibility options and the rock hard optional content.
I admit that about half way through chapter 7 the game had broke me and I had to use the assist mode to finish, but it didn't bother me too much; I'd gotten what I wanted from the game by then and continuing on as is was just frustrating me.
Imo, some of the screens ask too much of you to accomplish at once but that's just my take.
(special shout out to chapter 3 though for being such a big difficulty spike in the early game)
All that being said though,I had realised quite quickly from my experience and reading online that final 2 chapters (which require doing the optional content to unlcok) were going to be way too hard for me and would only be doable with me permanently using the assist mode. It's post-game/optional content so fair enough, but those same levels also have further story, and imo this is a bit of a dick move when the game is quite heavily story driven.
On a very similar note, the game tells you up front that the strawberries make no difference and are just for bragging rights, well that's just not true though.
It's very very minor but it does indeed affect your ending, and if I'd known that I would have made more effort to get strawberries.
Again, bit of a dick move, and I was quite disappointed and annoyed that this had come up at the epilogue.
On the whole though, I can't complain too much.
After all if I really, really wanted to do it then assist mode is there to let people see all that stuff, even if that then becomes a bit cart before horse imo. Personally I'm just going to youtube the extra levels.
Overall, it's a very well made game with a very affecting story, that elevates it beyond your typical "hard platformer"
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Corona. Too much time. I was also sick at home for some weeks.
I forgot to ask you, how was the story? Was it interesting? Did you like it?
How did you find the gameplay?
The story is pretty basic but it's alright, it continues in the expansion which I'm playing on and off at the minute.
The gameplay can feel a bit clunky, although I never normally play ranged in ARPG, so it might just be that.
Definitely worth getting when it's on sale.
The gameplay can feel a bit clunky, although I never normally play ranged in ARPG, so it might just be that.
Definitely worth getting when it's on sale.
Retired Asura's Wrath (Xbox 360 BC via XSX)
Oh man, I can feel the hate coming already considering this is a cult classic, but quite simply this was boring af
I gave it 6 chapters worth just in case it had a slow start, but I think by then that was enough for a decent impression of what this game is.
Ultimately and quite simply, for all the bombastic fight scenes going on, it doesn't really mean much when there's nothing else backing it up; I just could not get invested.
The combat is a big nothing, and it might as well not be there in favour of having more QTEs tbh
The biggest problem imo though is the story, which is just so thin. Little effort at world building is attempted, you're pretty much just thrown in. For a game like this that has little "traditional" gameplay, imo it would live and die on the story, and it's definitely the latter.
Oh man, I can feel the hate coming already considering this is a cult classic, but quite simply this was boring af
I gave it 6 chapters worth just in case it had a slow start, but I think by then that was enough for a decent impression of what this game is.
Ultimately and quite simply, for all the bombastic fight scenes going on, it doesn't really mean much when there's nothing else backing it up; I just could not get invested.
The combat is a big nothing, and it might as well not be there in favour of having more QTEs tbh
The biggest problem imo though is the story, which is just so thin. Little effort at world building is attempted, you're pretty much just thrown in. For a game like this that has little "traditional" gameplay, imo it would live and die on the story, and it's definitely the latter.
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Oh man, dropping games like flies now
Guess this is what happens with stuff that's been sitting in the backlog?
Retired Not Tonight (PC, Steam)
On the face of it, the appeal for me is very clear. It's Papers Please: Brexit Edition
I loved Papers Please and I f*cking hate brexit
But very simply, it's not as good as Papers Please.
It's got the same gameplay but the storytelling and atmospheric chops that Papers Please displays is so far just not hear. There is a brimming tension throughout Papers Please, that isn't displayed here.
Obviously that then just leaves you with the deliberately tedious gameplay, which obviously doesn't work out of context with no good story.
I checked HLTB and its also double the length of Papers Please too (5 hrs vs 10hrs), and I doubt even that game could maintain its quality over such a length
PS: dick move on when checking IDs that "the person's photo doesn't match" when the only clue is their hairstyle is slightly different. Not like people can't change their hair from ID pictures after all....
Guess this is what happens with stuff that's been sitting in the backlog?
Retired Not Tonight (PC, Steam)
On the face of it, the appeal for me is very clear. It's Papers Please: Brexit Edition
I loved Papers Please and I f*cking hate brexit
But very simply, it's not as good as Papers Please.
It's got the same gameplay but the storytelling and atmospheric chops that Papers Please displays is so far just not hear. There is a brimming tension throughout Papers Please, that isn't displayed here.
Obviously that then just leaves you with the deliberately tedious gameplay, which obviously doesn't work out of context with no good story.
I checked HLTB and its also double the length of Papers Please too (5 hrs vs 10hrs), and I doubt even that game could maintain its quality over such a length
PS: dick move on when checking IDs that "the person's photo doesn't match" when the only clue is their hairstyle is slightly different. Not like people can't change their hair from ID pictures after all....
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So, a few games I finished this month and haven't written about here:
Panzer Dragon Remake
A pretty faithful remake of a Sega Saturn game, a first party game by Sega even. It's a pretty straight forward railshooter, where you have some control over the dragon you are riding, and the camera too, so while the game is on rail you still have a nice level of interactivity.
I really don't have much to say about this game. It's barely two hours long, and pretty fun to play. If this one is in your backlog, maybe considering quickly finishing it as a short distraction between longer games.
I rate this game 1 out 2 Panzer Dragoon Remakes.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Great game by Platinum Games. While it looks superficially enough like a Metal Gear game in its UI and sound design, this is 100% just Platinum doing their usual amazing stuff, basically Bayonetta with a bit of a focus on parrying, and with a Metal Gear theme put hastily on top. And it's breathtaking at times.
While this might be controversial, I gotta say I really didn't like the music in this game. Even the "good" songs have maybe 10 seconds that start to sound good and then get drowned out by the lamest "metal" I have ever had the displeasure to hear.
The story feels, kind of pointless? You don't accomplish much, since Raiden and friends are always 2 steps behind Desperado, and even in the end it still feels like the villain basically won. I liked how Platinum basically predicted Trump in 2013, just goes to show how much post-2016 politics has become a self-parody.
Also ... nanomachines, Son.
I rate this 4 out of 4 HF blades.
Gears 5: Hivebusters
A short story campaign playing after the main story of Gears 5, and focusing on the three characters of the Scorpio team that appeared in Gears 5 Escape mode. It took me 3, maybe 4 hours to play, and I really liked it. The story doesn't really go anywhere, but then again, it rarely does in Gears of War games. There's some nice action set pieces, and absolutely stunning looking too. Combat was fun too, though I feel Gears 5 combat is starting to feel a bit boring to me. Hope Coalition can think about how to keep things fresh in Gears 6 or upcoming DLC.
I rate this 3 out of 5 cogs.
Detective Grimoire
A really nice adventure game, very light on typical puzzles and with a focus on real detective work. I really liked the "sentence" system, that's trying to help the player make their own conclusions about the current state of the case.
The game still railroads you into one correct choice, but it's clear that the developer wants you to think about the clues and what they mean, and there's many little "tests" to see if you are actually paying attention.
Also, I absolutely loved the presentation of this game. The music is amazing, feels like a real soundtrack you could find in a movie, the voice acting is very professional and the writing is well done too. Incredible work for a small indie studio.
Makes me hyped to play their newest game, Tangle Tower.
I rate this game 1 out of 1 detective hats.
Panzer Dragon Remake
A pretty faithful remake of a Sega Saturn game, a first party game by Sega even. It's a pretty straight forward railshooter, where you have some control over the dragon you are riding, and the camera too, so while the game is on rail you still have a nice level of interactivity.
I really don't have much to say about this game. It's barely two hours long, and pretty fun to play. If this one is in your backlog, maybe considering quickly finishing it as a short distraction between longer games.
I rate this game 1 out 2 Panzer Dragoon Remakes.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Great game by Platinum Games. While it looks superficially enough like a Metal Gear game in its UI and sound design, this is 100% just Platinum doing their usual amazing stuff, basically Bayonetta with a bit of a focus on parrying, and with a Metal Gear theme put hastily on top. And it's breathtaking at times.
While this might be controversial, I gotta say I really didn't like the music in this game. Even the "good" songs have maybe 10 seconds that start to sound good and then get drowned out by the lamest "metal" I have ever had the displeasure to hear.
The story feels, kind of pointless? You don't accomplish much, since Raiden and friends are always 2 steps behind Desperado, and even in the end it still feels like the villain basically won. I liked how Platinum basically predicted Trump in 2013, just goes to show how much post-2016 politics has become a self-parody.
Also ... nanomachines, Son.
I rate this 4 out of 4 HF blades.
Gears 5: Hivebusters
A short story campaign playing after the main story of Gears 5, and focusing on the three characters of the Scorpio team that appeared in Gears 5 Escape mode. It took me 3, maybe 4 hours to play, and I really liked it. The story doesn't really go anywhere, but then again, it rarely does in Gears of War games. There's some nice action set pieces, and absolutely stunning looking too. Combat was fun too, though I feel Gears 5 combat is starting to feel a bit boring to me. Hope Coalition can think about how to keep things fresh in Gears 6 or upcoming DLC.
I rate this 3 out of 5 cogs.
Detective Grimoire
A really nice adventure game, very light on typical puzzles and with a focus on real detective work. I really liked the "sentence" system, that's trying to help the player make their own conclusions about the current state of the case.
The game still railroads you into one correct choice, but it's clear that the developer wants you to think about the clues and what they mean, and there's many little "tests" to see if you are actually paying attention.
Also, I absolutely loved the presentation of this game. The music is amazing, feels like a real soundtrack you could find in a movie, the voice acting is very professional and the writing is well done too. Incredible work for a small indie studio.
Makes me hyped to play their newest game, Tangle Tower.
I rate this game 1 out of 1 detective hats.
Finished
Great game. Beautiful graphics, but some textures get muddy/uncear if you check objects upclose. Decent music. Very fun gameplay with different abilities and upgrades you get throughout the game. Fun platforming sections and good level design. Really only negative is that some enemy encounters were really frustrating and since enemy encounters are a core part of the game, those frustrating/annoying encounters somewhat drags the score. Also the story was just...meh.
Score: 8.5/10
Finished
Another good game. Short (1 hour), but I really enjoyed it. Cool and nice visual style and presentation, the bird was fun, cool puzzles and lots of interactivity with objects, overall a "surreal" expierence. Not big on the story though, quite generic sad story and the gameplay still could have been more variated., The ending also felt quite abrupt.
Score: 8/10
Great game. Beautiful graphics, but some textures get muddy/uncear if you check objects upclose. Decent music. Very fun gameplay with different abilities and upgrades you get throughout the game. Fun platforming sections and good level design. Really only negative is that some enemy encounters were really frustrating and since enemy encounters are a core part of the game, those frustrating/annoying encounters somewhat drags the score. Also the story was just...meh.
Score: 8.5/10
Finished
Another good game. Short (1 hour), but I really enjoyed it. Cool and nice visual style and presentation, the bird was fun, cool puzzles and lots of interactivity with objects, overall a "surreal" expierence. Not big on the story though, quite generic sad story and the gameplay still could have been more variated., The ending also felt quite abrupt.
Score: 8/10
(almost) finished Bloons TD6
Bloons TD6 is one of the most enjoying, deep and challenging tower defense game I've ever played. There are tons of different maps, game modes and unlocks to keep you playing for many hours and the multiplayer/co-op community is very active.
It's mobile roots are still visible tho: there are no tooltips with information about the available powers and there's in-game currency that you need to unlock new stuff, to buy perks or to continue when you die. You can earn this money very slowly by playing - or buy it very fast with real money. No pay2win tho, so it didn't bother me that much.
I've finished all maps on easy, intermediate and hard, but expert is way to difficult and time-consuming for me. Very recommended!
Score: 8.3/10
Bloons TD6 is one of the most enjoying, deep and challenging tower defense game I've ever played. There are tons of different maps, game modes and unlocks to keep you playing for many hours and the multiplayer/co-op community is very active.
It's mobile roots are still visible tho: there are no tooltips with information about the available powers and there's in-game currency that you need to unlock new stuff, to buy perks or to continue when you die. You can earn this money very slowly by playing - or buy it very fast with real money. No pay2win tho, so it didn't bother me that much.
I've finished all maps on easy, intermediate and hard, but expert is way to difficult and time-consuming for me. Very recommended!
Score: 8.3/10
Been a while since i beat anything, got caught up in a few large games all at once.
15. Horizon Zero Dawn Complete (Steam) - Played it at release on PS4 so had forgotten a lot of it. They must have fixed the random crashes as the only issue I had was a couple of times the game slowed to a crawl and the assets needed to be re processed. Looks and runs great with plenty of fun characters and things to do. ★★★★ 1/2
16. Marvel's Avengers (Steam) - Great campaign in the most part, Baker is fantastic as Hulk/Banner. All the characters play very differently apart from the arrow twins. Hulk still feels like a gust of wind could kill him but I suppose that is the dilemma of the game, can't make Hulk like in the comics or no one would use any other character. The grind post game and the endgame is weak but there is fun to be had. Game seems completely broken atm, I stumbled upon a build for Cap that melts even the hardest units and bosses in 3-5 gamma shield throws. ★★★ 1/2
15. Horizon Zero Dawn Complete (Steam) - Played it at release on PS4 so had forgotten a lot of it. They must have fixed the random crashes as the only issue I had was a couple of times the game slowed to a crawl and the assets needed to be re processed. Looks and runs great with plenty of fun characters and things to do. ★★★★ 1/2
16. Marvel's Avengers (Steam) - Great campaign in the most part, Baker is fantastic as Hulk/Banner. All the characters play very differently apart from the arrow twins. Hulk still feels like a gust of wind could kill him but I suppose that is the dilemma of the game, can't make Hulk like in the comics or no one would use any other character. The grind post game and the endgame is weak but there is fun to be had. Game seems completely broken atm, I stumbled upon a build for Cap that melts even the hardest units and bosses in 3-5 gamma shield throws. ★★★ 1/2
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Finished Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
Great game where you're playing with the main characters of Peaky Blinders. Each character has unique abilities, going from stealth to combat and distraction. In order to achieve your goal, all characters need to work together. To make this work, you're able to jump forward and backwards in time and manipulate the actions at any time segment. This results in some clever time based puzzles, which are mostly fun and never too hard. Very recommended!
Score: 8.0/10
Great game where you're playing with the main characters of Peaky Blinders. Each character has unique abilities, going from stealth to combat and distraction. In order to achieve your goal, all characters need to work together. To make this work, you're able to jump forward and backwards in time and manipulate the actions at any time segment. This results in some clever time based puzzles, which are mostly fun and never too hard. Very recommended!
Score: 8.0/10
Enderal Forgotten Stories - Really good Skyrim total conversion mod, however the music stopped on my playthrough so I dropped it.
7/10
7/10
Portal Reloaded complete
Excellent set of puzzles, The time travel mechanic forces you to think a bit. It offered plenty of moments where I went "ooooh" or gleefully applied what was taught in the previous level. It's way harder than the actual games for sure, and sometimes puzzle execution can be tedious/finicky. Gonna watch the official walkthrough to see how unnecessarily convoluted my solutions were.
Excellent set of puzzles, The time travel mechanic forces you to think a bit. It offered plenty of moments where I went "ooooh" or gleefully applied what was taught in the previous level. It's way harder than the actual games for sure, and sometimes puzzle execution can be tedious/finicky. Gonna watch the official walkthrough to see how unnecessarily convoluted my solutions were.
Finished
This is a game which has very strong vibes from the Zelda/Link games. If I would compare it with a game from that serie is probably Link's Awakening + Wind Waker game. Is it good? Yes quite so, but I think it might been better if this game first was made for the PC instead of smartphone game since the control isn't the best in my opinion. Disregarding that I thought this game catch some nostalgia from the old time.
I actually started to play this game first time in 2017, but then didn't finish it at that time. Might be because of the story, although the gameplay and story catches some retro feeling the story isn't the best, but perhaps with Oceanhorn 2 it will improve it and other things.
Do I recommend it then, well yes if you can get it on sale. Otherwise wait
This is a game which has very strong vibes from the Zelda/Link games. If I would compare it with a game from that serie is probably Link's Awakening + Wind Waker game. Is it good? Yes quite so, but I think it might been better if this game first was made for the PC instead of smartphone game since the control isn't the best in my opinion. Disregarding that I thought this game catch some nostalgia from the old time.
I actually started to play this game first time in 2017, but then didn't finish it at that time. Might be because of the story, although the gameplay and story catches some retro feeling the story isn't the best, but perhaps with Oceanhorn 2 it will improve it and other things.
Do I recommend it then, well yes if you can get it on sale. Otherwise wait
Finished Stacking + The Lost Hobo King (Double Fine, 2011)
A puzzle exploration game with a very unique style - all characters in the game are stacking dolls with a specific gameplay action for each type of doll, and almost all of them can be taken over and controlled by the player.
Pro:
This is one of those games that completely delivered on the promise of the downloadable console game of the late 2000s and early 2010s - something different from the big titles, more creative, more off-beat, more affordable. But even in today's world of tons of amazing unique indie games it still holds up and I'm glad I finally played it after having missed out on it at the time.
4.5/5
A puzzle exploration game with a very unique style - all characters in the game are stacking dolls with a specific gameplay action for each type of doll, and almost all of them can be taken over and controlled by the player.
Pro:
- The art direction and game-play mechanic are Double Fine at their best, coming up with some really far out and interesting concept, and, in this case, making it work beautifully.
- Even though the game is a puzzle-adventure, just following the story and solving the puzzles as they come along is literally just 50 percent of the game, since all the puzzles have multiple solutions and the game keeps track of how many you found for you. Since this is a game from the golden era of collection achievements, it also keeps track of how many unique dolls you found and fun little side-activities you did and wraps all that tracking into those, so you will get something out of taking the time to faff about and discovering everything. There's also a sort of in-game trophy room that fills up with decorations as you complete your collection.
- The story is a light-hearted remix of various Charles Dickens story beats and told beautifully in little silent-film cutscenes, accompanied by an uplifting classical soundtrack.
- If you like your games to be more linear (and finished once the credits roll), the collectathon aspect might be somewhat of a con, but in my opinion there really are no stupid things to collect in here, everything you can find has some unique fun attached to it.
- Framerate on PC hard-locked to 30.
This is one of those games that completely delivered on the promise of the downloadable console game of the late 2000s and early 2010s - something different from the big titles, more creative, more off-beat, more affordable. But even in today's world of tons of amazing unique indie games it still holds up and I'm glad I finally played it after having missed out on it at the time.
4.5/5
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I finished Robotics;Notes last month
This is the third game in the Science Adventure series, developed and written by mages. Most people probably only know the second game, Steins;Gate, as it was released on Steam years ago and is also the most popular game in the series so far. It was interesting to see another take on this idea of science fiction themed visual novels. Where in S;G the big thing was time travel , in Robotics;Notes it's the existence of giant robots (don't think that needs a spoiler tag). Basically "what if Gundams really existed and could be built". The game is going through some lengths to explain how these things would be terribly inefficient and slow if you use normal engines (similar to ones used in cars). The solution, it turns out, is having fictional electro motors that don't and probably can't exist and using a magical wireless energy source. And even then the game acknowledges that it would be moving super slowly and to effectively fight with it would require someone with supernatural reflexes (which the game conveniently also provides).
The overall plot relates weakly to Steins;Gate, as the same shadowy organisation makes an appearance again (or rather, is involved in the background). I haven't played the first Science Adventure game, so I am not sure if the Committee of 300 stuff is handled better there, but in R;N, all this conspiracy stuff felt very .. disconnected? In S;G it kinda fit with the time-travel theme Having some oppressive future send agents back in time is basically a trope itself..
But since the rest of R;N is very quiet and peaceful (more on that below), the plot felt simply to crazy. Even if it's explained how Kaito slowly learned about the Committee and thus was prepared for what happened, how is everyone else around him so cool with it? Oh yeah, our long lost sister is part of an evil organisatrion that wants to destroy human civilisation. I guess we will just stop her with our robot and then afterwards forget everything about it and pretend we don't live in a world controlled by a magical evil organisation. .
R;N has a much much slower pace than S;N. I believe this is a deliberate decision by mages. The other two games were set in the very hectic and turbocharged Tokyo, and this one takes place in on the small island of Tanegashima, south of Kyushu. So maybe the developers wanted you to feel that slower, rural pace. The game says as much in the beginning, with Kaito saying how he feels his world is somehow outside of time, with nothing ever changing.
Whatever the reason, I really feel this pacing is the worst aspect of the game. While it allows you to really get to understand the characters, and get a feel for the world, it really hurts any thematic tension that game tries to build up near the end. So much pointless text in moments when you want the story to move along quickly. This game could really have used a good editor, forcing the team to make some cuts to the script.
A very strange choice was also made on the plot progression. The game has chapters, called "phases", and the only way it makes sense is if you play them in order. But to do so, the game treats a certain moment in phase 3 as a sort of "starting point": you do a certain action, and then you get to see phase 4. Then you reach an "ending" in phase 4. You haven't beaten the game, and the plot doesn't even conclude in any form. Instead, mages expects you to load up a save slot near the "starting point" I mentioned, do a different action, and only then do you get to see phase 5. And this is done for phases 4,5,6, and 7. And the game doesn't tell you what these specific actions are, and it allows you to play the phases in any order.
Just play this game with a walkthrough, and keep wondering. I never found an answer.
Overall, I liked Robotics;Notes. The characters really grow on you, and that was enough to push me through the glacial pace this game has. You are rewarded with some nice action set pieces in the end, at least.
If you were a fan of Steins;Gate, and are fine with taking your time with a VN, then I can recommend it. Just make sure to use a guide. The Committee of Zero peeps have a really nice spoiler-free walk-through, here: ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE 100% Walkthrough. Would also recommend the patch that they released, it makes the text nicer to read and adds full mouse controls.
Overall, I rate Robotics;Notes with 3 out of 4 pieces of Space Candy.
This is the third game in the Science Adventure series, developed and written by mages. Most people probably only know the second game, Steins;Gate, as it was released on Steam years ago and is also the most popular game in the series so far. It was interesting to see another take on this idea of science fiction themed visual novels. Where in S;G the big thing was time travel , in Robotics;Notes it's the existence of giant robots (don't think that needs a spoiler tag). Basically "what if Gundams really existed and could be built". The game is going through some lengths to explain how these things would be terribly inefficient and slow if you use normal engines (similar to ones used in cars). The solution, it turns out, is having fictional electro motors that don't and probably can't exist and using a magical wireless energy source. And even then the game acknowledges that it would be moving super slowly and to effectively fight with it would require someone with supernatural reflexes (which the game conveniently also provides).
The overall plot relates weakly to Steins;Gate, as the same shadowy organisation makes an appearance again (or rather, is involved in the background). I haven't played the first Science Adventure game, so I am not sure if the Committee of 300 stuff is handled better there, but in R;N, all this conspiracy stuff felt very .. disconnected? In S;G it kinda fit with the time-travel theme Having some oppressive future send agents back in time is basically a trope itself..
But since the rest of R;N is very quiet and peaceful (more on that below), the plot felt simply to crazy. Even if it's explained how Kaito slowly learned about the Committee and thus was prepared for what happened, how is everyone else around him so cool with it? Oh yeah, our long lost sister is part of an evil organisatrion that wants to destroy human civilisation. I guess we will just stop her with our robot and then afterwards forget everything about it and pretend we don't live in a world controlled by a magical evil organisation. .
R;N has a much much slower pace than S;N. I believe this is a deliberate decision by mages. The other two games were set in the very hectic and turbocharged Tokyo, and this one takes place in on the small island of Tanegashima, south of Kyushu. So maybe the developers wanted you to feel that slower, rural pace. The game says as much in the beginning, with Kaito saying how he feels his world is somehow outside of time, with nothing ever changing.
Whatever the reason, I really feel this pacing is the worst aspect of the game. While it allows you to really get to understand the characters, and get a feel for the world, it really hurts any thematic tension that game tries to build up near the end. So much pointless text in moments when you want the story to move along quickly. This game could really have used a good editor, forcing the team to make some cuts to the script.
A very strange choice was also made on the plot progression. The game has chapters, called "phases", and the only way it makes sense is if you play them in order. But to do so, the game treats a certain moment in phase 3 as a sort of "starting point": you do a certain action, and then you get to see phase 4. Then you reach an "ending" in phase 4. You haven't beaten the game, and the plot doesn't even conclude in any form. Instead, mages expects you to load up a save slot near the "starting point" I mentioned, do a different action, and only then do you get to see phase 5. And this is done for phases 4,5,6, and 7. And the game doesn't tell you what these specific actions are, and it allows you to play the phases in any order.
Just play this game with a walkthrough, and keep wondering. I never found an answer.
Overall, I liked Robotics;Notes. The characters really grow on you, and that was enough to push me through the glacial pace this game has. You are rewarded with some nice action set pieces in the end, at least.
If you were a fan of Steins;Gate, and are fine with taking your time with a VN, then I can recommend it. Just make sure to use a guide. The Committee of Zero peeps have a really nice spoiler-free walk-through, here: ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE 100% Walkthrough. Would also recommend the patch that they released, it makes the text nicer to read and adds full mouse controls.
Overall, I rate Robotics;Notes with 3 out of 4 pieces of Space Candy.
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I've retired two games that are mostly designed for speedrunning. Not because they are bad games, but I just don't like playing this kind of games anymore.
This is more or less Super Meat Boy but with a grappling hook. The level design is great and the game has a decent speedrunning community. It's just too frustrating for me to enjoy, since it's all about using the grappling hook (which always shoots in a 45° angle) at exactly the right moment. And the "right moment" is a 50ms time window. At my age, doing this right felt more like luck than skills
Cyber hook uses the same concept, but this time in 3D. You can also actually aim the hook towards the floating objects, but after that gravity is doing it's thing and you can't change direction anymore. It must be amazing to master this game and beat the time records, but again, this is not for me (anymore).
Frustrated by the games above, I decided to play an old-school adventure. Yup, this is what I've become nowadays.
I actually finished this game and loved every minute of it. The story is not as mysterious as the first game, but the dialogs, humor, characters and most of the puzzles are excellent. Definitely worth playing if you like point & click adventures!
Score: 8.2/10
This is more or less Super Meat Boy but with a grappling hook. The level design is great and the game has a decent speedrunning community. It's just too frustrating for me to enjoy, since it's all about using the grappling hook (which always shoots in a 45° angle) at exactly the right moment. And the "right moment" is a 50ms time window. At my age, doing this right felt more like luck than skills
Cyber hook uses the same concept, but this time in 3D. You can also actually aim the hook towards the floating objects, but after that gravity is doing it's thing and you can't change direction anymore. It must be amazing to master this game and beat the time records, but again, this is not for me (anymore).
Frustrated by the games above, I decided to play an old-school adventure. Yup, this is what I've become nowadays.
I actually finished this game and loved every minute of it. The story is not as mysterious as the first game, but the dialogs, humor, characters and most of the puzzles are excellent. Definitely worth playing if you like point & click adventures!
Score: 8.2/10
Finished Astro's Playroom (Playstation 5)
For coming free with the PS5 and it being meant as a showcase for the controller and the PS5 hardware, it was a really good and variated tech game. 4 world which each take 25-40min to play through, lots of cool gameplay mechanics, gorgeus graphics, fun and tight gameplay. Still misses the great feeling and depth of Astrobot Rescue Mission though.
8.5/10
For coming free with the PS5 and it being meant as a showcase for the controller and the PS5 hardware, it was a really good and variated tech game. 4 world which each take 25-40min to play through, lots of cool gameplay mechanics, gorgeus graphics, fun and tight gameplay. Still misses the great feeling and depth of Astrobot Rescue Mission though.
8.5/10
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Finished Destroy All Humans! Remake on gamepass.
As far as remaking work is concerned, this is 10/10. Awesome graphics, great controls, all changes are for the better and it looks like modern AAA game.
As far as actual game is concerned....on one hand it is surprisingly varied in how many mechanics it has, but on the other the mission design is very simplistic and does not really let those mechanics shine. Fun game, but nothing amazing.
7/10
As far as remaking work is concerned, this is 10/10. Awesome graphics, great controls, all changes are for the better and it looks like modern AAA game.
As far as actual game is concerned....on one hand it is surprisingly varied in how many mechanics it has, but on the other the mission design is very simplistic and does not really let those mechanics shine. Fun game, but nothing amazing.
7/10
Finished Iris and the Giant
Excellent hybrid between a card game, rogue-like and turn-based strategy. Everything is so amazingly polished and the narrative design is very well done. Almost every level has secret exits or puzzle levels to discover, and there are plenty of perks and companions to unlock by completing quests. My only "complaint" is that your strategy is rather limited in the first few levels, since you have to "steal" the more advanced cards from the enemies you encounter. Still a great experience for the time it kept me hooked tho.
Score: 8.8/10
Excellent hybrid between a card game, rogue-like and turn-based strategy. Everything is so amazingly polished and the narrative design is very well done. Almost every level has secret exits or puzzle levels to discover, and there are plenty of perks and companions to unlock by completing quests. My only "complaint" is that your strategy is rather limited in the first few levels, since you have to "steal" the more advanced cards from the enemies you encounter. Still a great experience for the time it kept me hooked tho.
Score: 8.8/10
"Finished" ISLANDS: Non-Places (Carl Burton, 2016)
Not a game, but a sort of interactive exhibition of ten virtual sculptures / scenes that takes some 45 minutes to watch from start to finish and that is sold on various online game outlets.
Once again no sense in doing the bullet points for this one, or to give a score for that matter, but I liked it a lot. I recommend checking out Carl Burton's website (just follow the link in this post) and his blog "Process" (also on that same website). His aesthetic really resonates with me and in this game, his always cool visuals are accompanied by some very good atmospheric sound effects that really take you into each scene.
The first time you run the program, you have to go through each scene in order, once you have done so, you can select them at will, which is (together with having to occasionally click on something to progress a scene) the only vaguely game-like characteristic of this piece.
The price to content ratio is, well. Ever looked at price tags in an art gallery? It does occasionally go on sale though, mostly on Humble.
Not a game, but a sort of interactive exhibition of ten virtual sculptures / scenes that takes some 45 minutes to watch from start to finish and that is sold on various online game outlets.
Once again no sense in doing the bullet points for this one, or to give a score for that matter, but I liked it a lot. I recommend checking out Carl Burton's website (just follow the link in this post) and his blog "Process" (also on that same website). His aesthetic really resonates with me and in this game, his always cool visuals are accompanied by some very good atmospheric sound effects that really take you into each scene.
The first time you run the program, you have to go through each scene in order, once you have done so, you can select them at will, which is (together with having to occasionally click on something to progress a scene) the only vaguely game-like characteristic of this piece.
The price to content ratio is, well. Ever looked at price tags in an art gallery? It does occasionally go on sale though, mostly on Humble.
Finished
Great puzzle game with really nice "background/environment", really nice music and overall good atmosphere. The concept is great and is well executed, a bit repetive certain times despite some variation in gameplay mechanics and I found it annoying that when you "die" you go back to scratch in the puzzles so you have to "edit" everything again, well since you died your current setup in the puzzle is wrong. Overall a great puzzle game with beautiful graphics, nice music and good gameplay.
Score: 8/10
Great puzzle game with really nice "background/environment", really nice music and overall good atmosphere. The concept is great and is well executed, a bit repetive certain times despite some variation in gameplay mechanics and I found it annoying that when you "die" you go back to scratch in the puzzles so you have to "edit" everything again, well since you died your current setup in the puzzle is wrong. Overall a great puzzle game with beautiful graphics, nice music and good gameplay.
Score: 8/10
Finished Ratchet & Clank (2016) (PS4)
This feels like a game of two halves:
- the story is wonderful, it's charming, funny and with a host of endearing characters, Qwark and Nefarious definitely stand out
- the gameplay on the other hand feels very "standard"? By about the half way point it just felt like it had shown all of its cards and was starting to feel repetitive. A big part of the appeal with R&C is the variety of the weapons, but imo its not that big a deal when the combat encounters are hardly deep; you can find a couple of firm favourite weapons, upgrade them and never need bother with any others.
Finished Dead Rising Remastered - 72 Hour mode and Overtime mode
Quoting myself from the Steam thread regarding 72 hour mode:
72 hour mode was really entertaining! The last 14 hours were a bit... empty since the commandos appear and you have pretty much no side missions to complete for the entire time.
Overtime mode was a bit frantic since you had plenty of missions to complete in just 24 hours. Still, I managed to finish them all with about 11 hours to spare.
The last part where you escape through the tunnel was quite tedious since the AI for Isabela let go of Frank's hand all the time, and proceeded to shove zombies, preventing Frank from grabbing her hand again.
When comparing the two modes, it's clear that 72 hour mode is the fun part, and Overtime just extends the game time a bit, without really adding much of value.
And who's idea was it to add a lot of useless fighting game moves that you gradually unlock, in a game where you are constantly encouraged to use either melee or ranged weapons? Not only were they almost impossible to pull off, but you really didn't need them either in the game. The final boss Brock I managed to defeat with just jump kicking and keeping my distance.
All in all, it was a great experience!
Quoting myself from the Steam thread regarding 72 hour mode:
72 hour mode was really entertaining! The last 14 hours were a bit... empty since the commandos appear and you have pretty much no side missions to complete for the entire time.
Overtime mode was a bit frantic since you had plenty of missions to complete in just 24 hours. Still, I managed to finish them all with about 11 hours to spare.
The last part where you escape through the tunnel was quite tedious since the AI for Isabela let go of Frank's hand all the time, and proceeded to shove zombies, preventing Frank from grabbing her hand again.
When comparing the two modes, it's clear that 72 hour mode is the fun part, and Overtime just extends the game time a bit, without really adding much of value.
And who's idea was it to add a lot of useless fighting game moves that you gradually unlock, in a game where you are constantly encouraged to use either melee or ranged weapons? Not only were they almost impossible to pull off, but you really didn't need them either in the game. The final boss Brock I managed to defeat with just jump kicking and keeping my distance.
All in all, it was a great experience!
Retired.
Sure, it's a very unique game but it is also a slog to play. The lack of a quick way to access the many memories from the journal made me stop playing.
I was fed up with walking to every corpse and use the dumb watch. Very often there were memories inside other memories. It was a constant back and forth to find a missing information to identify a person and determine it's fate.
Sure, it's a very unique game but it is also a slog to play. The lack of a quick way to access the many memories from the journal made me stop playing.
I was fed up with walking to every corpse and use the dumb watch. Very often there were memories inside other memories. It was a constant back and forth to find a missing information to identify a person and determine it's fate.
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Finished
I only went through the main story line. Took a booster route though, since I wanted to finish the plot and know what it is all about. Was a satisfied? Well no. Story meh, although graphic wise it was pleasing to see, and dungeon crawling was quite fun. The game falls short though in it's own main mechanic, which is dungeon crawling. It is repetitive and not much new is added. You go to dungeons to loot, and then you either sell your loot or use it to upgrade your equipment. That's quite fun for the few iterations, but afterward it became very, very grindy. Moreover your backpack is really small and cannot be upgraded, so you have to do quite few re-runs since you didn't collect enough or you had to go back because your backpack was overfilled.
So do I recommend it, NO
Storywise, it was really really terrible, and the gameplay was so so first, but it is a very grindy game. I do not recommend it!
I only went through the main story line. Took a booster route though, since I wanted to finish the plot and know what it is all about. Was a satisfied? Well no. Story meh, although graphic wise it was pleasing to see, and dungeon crawling was quite fun. The game falls short though in it's own main mechanic, which is dungeon crawling. It is repetitive and not much new is added. You go to dungeons to loot, and then you either sell your loot or use it to upgrade your equipment. That's quite fun for the few iterations, but afterward it became very, very grindy. Moreover your backpack is really small and cannot be upgraded, so you have to do quite few re-runs since you didn't collect enough or you had to go back because your backpack was overfilled.
So do I recommend it, NO
Storywise, it was really really terrible, and the gameplay was so so first, but it is a very grindy game. I do not recommend it!
Retired Oddworld New n Tasty (PC, EGS)
I gave my brief impressions in the Steam thread, and my big gripe was the clear carrot and stick regarding the goal of rescuing mudokons to get a satisfactory ending (this isn't stated in advance or anything but the original game is ancient and I just knew that that was a thing). Problem being not the actual saving of them, but the act of even finding them in the first place as most are hidden from you (I only saved 20/70 mudokons on the first chapter as that's all I found, and I'd rather not play the game glued to a walkthrough)
I progressed a little further and this seems to continue (I saved only a handful out of 40 in chapter 2), and I knew I was just going to get mad if I then spent my time only to get the "you failed" ending.
The platforming was getting more challenging too, not in of itself a bad thing, I actually rather welcomed that as Chapter 1 seemed more simple, but Abe's jumping quickly became a problem, very reminiscent of the PS1 era indeed.
All in all, just not the sort of thing I'm looking for right now, and I got it as a freebie so nothing lost nothing gained.
I gave my brief impressions in the Steam thread, and my big gripe was the clear carrot and stick regarding the goal of rescuing mudokons to get a satisfactory ending (this isn't stated in advance or anything but the original game is ancient and I just knew that that was a thing). Problem being not the actual saving of them, but the act of even finding them in the first place as most are hidden from you (I only saved 20/70 mudokons on the first chapter as that's all I found, and I'd rather not play the game glued to a walkthrough)
I progressed a little further and this seems to continue (I saved only a handful out of 40 in chapter 2), and I knew I was just going to get mad if I then spent my time only to get the "you failed" ending.
The platforming was getting more challenging too, not in of itself a bad thing, I actually rather welcomed that as Chapter 1 seemed more simple, but Abe's jumping quickly became a problem, very reminiscent of the PS1 era indeed.
All in all, just not the sort of thing I'm looking for right now, and I got it as a freebie so nothing lost nothing gained.
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Finished Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon (Ubisoft, 2013)
Far Cry, but retro-wave.
Pro:
I was somewhat disappointed with this game, since it wasn't nearly as funny as I expected. But it's a pretty fun open-world shooter anyway that didn't waste my time and that's worth something.
3.5/5
Far Cry, but retro-wave.
Pro:
- This is essentially Far Cry 3 reskinned into an 80s action movie / 80s action cartoon parody and as such is a smooth open world shooter. As usual with Far Cry titles, the enemy AI, terrain and weapon set allows for both running and gunning or a more stealthy style of play, although this particular game is even more heavily slanted towards the former than other Far Cry titles, for obvious reasons. To fit with the theme, this game also dispenses with killjoy features such as fall damage, realistic running speed or jump height - the player character is a cyborg after all.
- Thanks to the very ambitious technical capabilities of the Dunia Engine used in this game, it still looks pretty good, too, particularly on maxed out settings on PC.
- Art direction is the usual level of Ubisoft polish, top notch work in every category.
- Probably the only Ubisoft open-world game that absolutely nails play time / content ratio - a brisk 9 hours to complete every story mission and side-quest. Add another one or two for 100%-ing all achievements.
- The stories and characters of Far Cry games have always been pastiches of the most cheesy and awful of action flick tropes anyway, so this game's attempt to go all-out parody really struggles to achieve the satiric exaggeration it aims for. It takes potshots at everything and anything from Ubisoft open-world game mechanics (the player character's voice-overs express his annoyance at the collectible quests in no uncertain terms) to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it rarely hits. The vehicle for all those gags - the actual story - is barely existent, but I suppose that's fair enough in this case.
- The save system lets you save at any point in the game as long as you're just exploring the open world - which is great! But once you start a story mission, it switches to a checkpoint system and worse, if you quit the game during a story mission, the game throws away your in-mission progress completely and you have to start over.
I was somewhat disappointed with this game, since it wasn't nearly as funny as I expected. But it's a pretty fun open-world shooter anyway that didn't waste my time and that's worth something.
3.5/5
Retired 007 Nightfire (PS2)
OK, I'm going really retro here, but back in the day as a kid I had played all of the 007 games from the PS2 era except this one.
For whatever reason I had not bothered to play it until now, but I think the moment has sadly passed.
The game is simply too dated now, and the controls make it nigh unplayable for me.
It has the old pre-Halo control scheme where movement and aiming functions where each spread across both sticks rather than a dedicated one for each.
I even tried jerry rigging a solution around that with Dolphin, but it really didn't like that as after a short time the controls became totally unresponsive.
So all in all even at the early game on easy mode I was just getting my ass handed to me.
It's such a shame I was actually really looking forward to playing this
OK, I'm going really retro here, but back in the day as a kid I had played all of the 007 games from the PS2 era except this one.
For whatever reason I had not bothered to play it until now, but I think the moment has sadly passed.
The game is simply too dated now, and the controls make it nigh unplayable for me.
It has the old pre-Halo control scheme where movement and aiming functions where each spread across both sticks rather than a dedicated one for each.
I even tried jerry rigging a solution around that with Dolphin, but it really didn't like that as after a short time the controls became totally unresponsive.
So all in all even at the early game on easy mode I was just getting my ass handed to me.
It's such a shame I was actually really looking forward to playing this
So all in all even at the early game on easy mode I was just getting my ass handed to me.
It's such a shame I was actually really looking forward to playing this
FWIW, there is a PC (and even a Mac!) port of this game, but they aren't available in retail anymore and might need some tweaking to get working on modern hardware and OS.
I’ve heard that the PC version is actually a totally different game though (yeah remember that dumb trend :/)
So I finished Ys V on the SNES today (using bsnes emulator).
This is the only Ys game not to have received a remake in the late 90 or post 2000, and it was the first one not to use the bumb system.
Instead it introduced two forms of combat (each of which you need to level up separately): first basic physical attacks, and levelling them up also increases your HP. And a magic system, where you need to first craft spells from elements you find. I didn't find this magic mechanic to be really interesting. Magic requires you to charge up your "mana" before you can attack, which slows it down a lot and just makes it a hassle. The other issue is that the first spell you get is good enough that you can forget about everything else until about the midpoint in the game, and after that your physical attacks are already so overpowered that you need not bother with anything else.
Your physical sword attack are kinda simplistic, but just going around the dungeons and whacking mobs is still really fun. The basic DNA of Ys, of beating tons of enemies, levelling up and getting even better at beating enemies, is still here and still satisfying. The one gigantic let-down are the boss fights. Not only are they way to easy (which is something Falcom adressed by releasing an "Expert" version of this game with higher difficulty), but my bigger gripe is that most of them are just not very well designed. Among the 15 or so bosses, there are maybe 3 that really stood out, the rest feels incredibly samey, and can be cheesed by just spamming attack. No increase in difficulty could easily fix that.
I liked the story of this one, it explores the Ys equivalent of Egypt, where the town of Xandria is clearly a reference to Alexandria. The town itself is laughably small, but that was kinda normal for those old Ys games. The backstory with Kefin is really only hinted at, a former empire that used a strange power called "alchemy" to create incredible wonders, but mysteriously vanished of the Earth. It's more than a little similar to the backstory of Ys I and II, but without the need for the Eldeen to explain the magical wonders, it was all human ingenuity. Would really love for Falcom to revisit this in a future remake.
Ultimately it's probably the weakest Ys game for me, it lacks the refinement any of the newer and remade games have. But there's lots of interesting things to discover in this one too, so I'd recommend it to any dedicated fan of the series.
I rate this game 3 out of 5 pikkards.
This is the only Ys game not to have received a remake in the late 90 or post 2000, and it was the first one not to use the bumb system.
Instead it introduced two forms of combat (each of which you need to level up separately): first basic physical attacks, and levelling them up also increases your HP. And a magic system, where you need to first craft spells from elements you find. I didn't find this magic mechanic to be really interesting. Magic requires you to charge up your "mana" before you can attack, which slows it down a lot and just makes it a hassle. The other issue is that the first spell you get is good enough that you can forget about everything else until about the midpoint in the game, and after that your physical attacks are already so overpowered that you need not bother with anything else.
Your physical sword attack are kinda simplistic, but just going around the dungeons and whacking mobs is still really fun. The basic DNA of Ys, of beating tons of enemies, levelling up and getting even better at beating enemies, is still here and still satisfying. The one gigantic let-down are the boss fights. Not only are they way to easy (which is something Falcom adressed by releasing an "Expert" version of this game with higher difficulty), but my bigger gripe is that most of them are just not very well designed. Among the 15 or so bosses, there are maybe 3 that really stood out, the rest feels incredibly samey, and can be cheesed by just spamming attack. No increase in difficulty could easily fix that.
I liked the story of this one, it explores the Ys equivalent of Egypt, where the town of Xandria is clearly a reference to Alexandria. The town itself is laughably small, but that was kinda normal for those old Ys games. The backstory with Kefin is really only hinted at, a former empire that used a strange power called "alchemy" to create incredible wonders, but mysteriously vanished of the Earth. It's more than a little similar to the backstory of Ys I and II, but without the need for the Eldeen to explain the magical wonders, it was all human ingenuity. Would really love for Falcom to revisit this in a future remake.
Ultimately it's probably the weakest Ys game for me, it lacks the refinement any of the newer and remade games have. But there's lots of interesting things to discover in this one too, so I'd recommend it to any dedicated fan of the series.
I rate this game 3 out of 5 pikkards.