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BadDecissions: The graphics are still kind of off-puttting (I'm not going to pretend not to care about the visuals in a visual medium), but not enough to ruin it
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Fantasysci5: I agree, the graphics put me off at first, especially no facial expressions. But just in this one case, I think the low key graphics added to the Lovecraftian atmosphere of impressions and not in your face.
Bought Season 2, hope it's good. :P
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F4LL0UT: Finally finished Populous: The Beginning yesterday. I've owned the game since 1999 and approached it dozens of times over the years, I feel almost depressed now that I'm finally done with it. Well, at least I still have the expansion ahead of me, although it annoys the heck out of me that it's one of those expansions where you can instantly pick all levels instead of having an actual campaign and which don't add anything other than new maps. Anyway, truly magnificent game, I wish there were a single other game in this vein out there.
That game is truly a timeless classic. I can't see how the game will ever stop being fun, or become too dated. The graphics and little 2D dudes have some sort of timeless charm.

I never did get to the expansion, but I also agree that it's a shame that it's not in the form of another campaign. Nevertheless, it's something awesome to look forward to one day.

Probably the closest game to it, prequels excluded, is Black and White 1. Though aesthetically with little 2D dudes running around I am also reminded of an old scifi game, but now I can't remember the name :P

edit: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/v2000 is what I was thinking of.
Post edited November 02, 2016 by Matewis
Day of the Tentacle. I was finding this incredibly difficult until I belatedly realized that you could send inanimate objects through the time machines. Duhhhh...this is the kind of oversight you might have if you mostly play late at night when your brain would rather go to sleep instead of work on solving nonsensical adventure games. After I figured that out, my progress picked up a bit, although there were still some pretty tough puzzles for me.

As much as I like Les Nessman, I have to say my favorite character is Laverne, just because of how deranged she is. My wife was cracking up at almost every single thing she said. Hoagie's a bit of a disappointing character, at least in terms of his voice because the actor doesn't sound like he understands what kind of character he's playing. Overall, the humor in the game really works.
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Matewis: That game is truly a timeless classic. I can't see how the game will ever stop being fun, or become too dated. The graphics and little 2D dudes have some sort of timeless charm.
It also helps that there isn't a single similar game around. And it's mindblowing that the shaman in The Beginning has more power than you have as a supposed god in Black & White. I mean seriously, just to improve my ability to defend my settlement I connect mountains just to place some towers on them or simply let the sea swallow an entire landmass so the enemy will need boats to reach me. I start out on a small island which just enough space for four buildings so I turn it into a continent. The enemy settlement is impenetrable... until I let tornadoes tear down the guard towers and use lightning and swarms to get enemies out of my way as I approach the centre and let a volcano shatter half the settlement and burn its population. It's just insane.
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F4LL0UT: It also helps that there isn't a single similar game around. And it's mindblowing that the shaman in The Beginning has more power than you have as a supposed god in Black & White. I mean seriously, just to improve my ability to defend my settlement I connect mountains just to place some towers on them or simply let the sea swallow an entire landmass so the enemy will need boats to reach me. I start out on a small island which just enough space for four buildings so I turn it into a continent. The enemy settlement is impenetrable... until I let tornadoes tear down the guard towers and use lightning and swarms to get enemies out of my way as I approach the centre and let a volcano shatter half the settlement and burn its population. It's just insane.
Yeah, though B&W does sort of make up for it by having a giant lovable and trainable creature running around :)

But yes, the game certainly allows you to unleash unspeakable devastation on your enemies. I don't know about you, but I often felt a little bit bad for settlements I unleashed a volcano and two earthquakes upon.
My favorite activities included using well aimed fireballs/lightning strikes to knock enemies into the surf, as well as using the raise land spell to destroy buildings. If you aim it just right at high position the massive ramp that follows can totally destroy a building :D
Trackmania: DS

I'm not a big fan of racing games that don't give you the option to fire a missile or shell at other racers, but I kept getting recommended Trackmania by a friend. I found a copy at a cheap price and brought it, and I thought it was pretty good. You basically have 3 types of tracks with 3 types of cars: Stadium where you drive a F1 style car that is high speed but terrible handling, Desert where your car has big wheels and good handling and Rally where you are really fast and very good handling, however you spend most of the time misjudging a corner and flying off into the air. I managed to get Gold on all Desert and Rally levels but eventually gave up on the Stadium ones. I still consider it completed, just not 100%. I don't know anyone who still plays DS so I am unable to use the multiplayer features, though I have created my own track. Anyway it was a lot of fun, and I recommend it.

Art Style: Intersect (DS)

A small casual game which is referred to as 'controlling traffic at a junction', 3 types of vehicles come towards you and you must navigate them into one of the 4 roads, the idea is to get 5 vehicles of the same type in each road, giving you a triangle, doing this over and over adds a side to your shape eventually making a circle. There are other ways to add sides to your shape but you can direct a 4th type of vehicle into the shape which makes a circle on the bottom screen go further along a track, on the bottom you are chased by a spike and you must keep propelling the circle forward before it catches you. I did a bad job of explaining the rules but it's simple and good fun, if your bad at it (Like I was most of the time) it seems to be based on luck, but I'm sure there are loads of strategy's to help you get really high scores. After about a year of casually playing the game on car journeys I finally got the gold trophy. Anyway it's a good game, I recommend it.
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Matewis: Yeah, though B&W does sort of make up for it by having a giant lovable and trainable creature running around :)
I hate that creature with every fibre in my body. It's just mindblowingly stupid to me that what was supposed to be the great successor to Populous turned out to be little more than a glorified tamagotchi. I mean for frigg's sake, in Black & White's universe one of the more common obligations of gods is to keep gigantic apes from eating their own poo.

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Matewis: But yes, the game certainly allows you to unleash unspeakable devastation on your enemies. I don't know about you, but I often felt a little bit bad for settlements I unleashed a volcano and two earthquakes upon.
Not only did I not feel bad for my enemies' followers, I also always gladly fired lightning strikes at preachers, taking dozens of my own men with them. These weak-willed peons deserve to be punished.

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Matewis: My favorite activities included using well aimed fireballs/lightning strikes to knock enemies into the surf, as well as using the raise land spell to destroy buildings. If you aim it just right at high position the massive ramp that follows can totally destroy a building :D
Tell me about it. Destroying buildings this way is easily one of the most satisfying things about the game. I have destroyed far too many of my own buildings with the bridge and flatten spells while trying to create some more space for my settlement. I couldn't even get angry at myself, I just laughed my butt off every single time, especially if it happened to a regular hut and its inhabitants burst out of it like confetti.
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F4LL0UT: I hate that creature with every fibre in my body. It's just mindblowingly stupid to me that what was supposed to be the great successor to Populous turned out to be little more than a glorified tamagotchi. I mean for frigg's sake, in Black & White's universe one of the more common obligations of gods is to keep gigantic apes from eating their own poo.
Sorry, but to me that translates as AWESOME!

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F4LL0UT: Not only did I not feel bad for my enemies' followers, I also always gladly fired lightning strikes at preachers, taking dozens of my own men with them. These weak-willed peons deserve to be punished.
Oh yes me too, screw those traitors! Or, if I was feeling more merciful, I'd use a swarm on them. That way at least a couple would survive and hopefully redeem themselves. But anyhow I quickly learned that any attacking force needed several preachers, otherwise before long half the attacking force will be sitting around listening to enemy preachers.
Schein

It’s a rather boring game with some excellent puzzles and frustrating platformer sections. Sounds a bit weird? Let me explain: in this game you have to travel through a swamp looking for your son. You have a companion - a firefly that can shine a light of three different colors (at the beginning you start with one). There are also lanterns that you can pick up and other fireflies, each with a specific color. Each color may or may not transform the world a bit - reveal a hidden platform/trap, move a gear etc. The whole game is about solving puzzles and intense platforming sections (changing light midair, high precision jumps etc.) The latter tends to be rather frustrating (you’ll have to repeat some sections many times before succeeding) while the former has some great moments but gets repetitive rather fast. A few puzzles are just brilliant and it gave me a lot of satisfaction to solve them. But sooner or later you will have a feeling that you do the same all the time, with small variations only. And let’s be honest - world changing mechanics is nothing new in platformer games and Schein basically does not offer anything else. Even the story is a cliché and forgettable. If you like puzzles and are good enough in platforming sections you may try the game - as already mention some puzzles are perfectly designed. Otherwise there are better games than Schein.


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King’s Quest 6 (I played the DOS version via ScummVM)

This is a very good point-and-click adventure, the best of the series in my opinion! The puzzles are logical and there are many hints present if you're paying careful attention. The art is nice and the UI is easy. The plot and the characters are interesting. There’s humour, and not just in the death scenes. Last, but not least, the locations to explore are varied and fun. There are still some dead ends which do not become immediately apparent, but providing you’ve been keeping a lot of different saves as you progress it’s not a huge problem.

Definitely recommended!!

~~~
This is the last KQ game I own, so next up: Space Quest :)!
Lennus 2

A rather fun JRPG. The game is much bigger than the original Lennus (Paladin's Quest), and there are a few gameplay changes (spirits are dropped by enemies rather than improved through use), but the basic ideas are shared. You can still attack with any piece of equipment (though many are not worth using this way), spells still cost HP, refillable medicine bottles are still the primary means of healing, and so on.

A few observations:
* Random encounters were unexpectedly dangerous early on (I actually got a game over in one), but then get easier (especially with the Gubo spell, which make it rain the game's equivalent of cows), though the difficulty increases a bit in the final dungeon.
* HP totals and damage amounts are much higher, but spells are actually cheaper; in the first game, you did have to pay attention to the HP costs of spells, but in the sequel one can treat spells as basically free to cast.
* When your spirits are near max, your spells change and become extremely powerful. Group attack spells become multi-hits, stat boost spells affect the entire party, Revive becomes a full revive, Martyr fully heals the rest of the party while leaving the caster alive at 10% HP, and so on. This makes spells much more powerful in the long run.
* Unlike the previous game, physical attacks are actually important early on. Later on, however, spells dominate (especially Gubo).
* Mid-battle revival is now possible. Also, the final boss is not *nearly* as difficult as the final boss of the first game.
* Not that far into the game, there is a huge city that has stores that sell most of the best buyable equipment in the game. In fact, it's not until endgame that you can get better equipment than that. (Doesn't this seem like a strange design decision?)

I have been thinking of replaying Phantasy Star 3 next (I am thinking Crys route).
Crusader: No Remorse
(in broken English)

Blast from the past! I've been familiar with Crusader series since No Regret had a demo, but never played the first installment. The game is very playable even today apart from minor annoyances with controlling of Silencer - the game protagonist. I've played on Loose Cannon difficulty (3/4) and that difficulty level was fine for me. You are not handholded, enemies are deadly, but not frustratingly so. You must be careful, plan traps and ambushes, as you should be. Perfect. Some enemies in the later levels are able to one shot Silencer and this was almost frustrating, but these areas could be traversed when dealt carefully. Quick save and quick load are a must.
I didn't liked lack of explanation (in manual or in game) of buyable items (like generators and batteries). That caused some confusion for me.
Also one needs to be wary that game could be put in unwinnable state, so keep those multiple save points in use (do not rely on quick save only). For example, vital keycards are sometimes carried by soldiers. You can rob the corpse of the keycard, no problem. Unless you disntigrate/put him on fire and then you can't get the keycard.
Some actors in cutscenes were laughable (like their performance), but it somehow added to the overall experience of the oldies action game for me. Mind that the videos are interlaced, which is terrible.
Game has ok length, when you need more, there is always second installment - No Regret.
Costume Quest

Cute and humerous Halloween RPG. I liked the art, the music and the story. Battles got a little repetitive at the end, because they never got hard and were always against the same monsters (except for the boss fights).
Fortunately the game wasn't very long and so it didn't get too boring.

Played quite thoroughly and yet missed some stuff (I didn't unlock two costumes and didn't complete one quest).

Complete list of finished games in 2016
Three days ago I finally finished Painkiller: Overdose.

It was really a good time, to play trough, I played on Daydream (easy mode).
The graphics are wonderfull (for me), all the leves looks different, interesting weapons and enemies.

The average time I took for a mission was about 20 minutes.
The game has 3 Chapters and each chapter has about 5 or 6 levels. Every chapter has and end boss.

My favorit levels were: the desert/egyptian, the japanese, the vikings, the clown park and the air combat levels.
Pacific Assault

I loved it. :D