I've been messing around with the free-dance mode for a while now, but I finally just beat Persona 4: Dancing All Night on Story mode. I enjoy the music segments, but even by Persona standards, I found the story to be pretty gratingly anime, if that makes any sense to anyone. The world being saved by the power of friendship, that sort of thing. Also super repetitive; you're trying to rescue some people, and each rescue goes exactly the same, beat for beat. I mean, sure you got that to an extent in Persona 4 (e.g. each abduction victim denies his Shadow and causes it to go berserk), but this really took it up a notch.

Also, I sometimes didn't feel like there was much relation between my performance and how the game claimed I performed. For example, I'd beat a song and squeak by with "Stage Cleared." I'd play it again and be awarded "Brilliant"... except that my score when I got the brilliant was lower than when I simply cleared the stage. I beat the game and beat every song in free dance, and still don't really get it.

Still, it's a fun rhythm game, and one I expect to come back when I have a few minutes to kill. Also, I want to mention that I found the dance animations and choreography to be really well-done..

I've been making my way through the Blackwell games this year (just finished the third.) Not sure how the Wadjet Eye games flew underneath my radar for so long. Really enjoying the overarcing storyline, the presentation and the voice acting is great as well.

I also recently played through Dark Fall: The Journal with my brother after the community giveaway guys were kind enough to randomly gift it to me just before the holidays. I found some of the areas genuinely creepy, I didn't expect that to be the case considering the age of the game - I thought I'd be desensitized to whatever the game would throw at me.

Think I'll try out the Rise of the Triad remake after my adventure kick is over. I'm in the mood for some shooting thingies action.

Yeah, it was pretty fun. Nice to see the characters again except Rise whose voice got even worse.

In that case, I've got good news for you: it's gonna get even better in the 4th and the 5th games. To me at least, Convergence is where the series truly became interesting. Legacy and Unbound were OK, but they felt too short and a little undercooked.

Gas Guzzlers Extreme

Fun game, it's like a mix between FlatOut and Death Rally - both which are Finnish, by the way (even though the developer of this game is not). There are five types of races: Power Race, Battle Race, Knockout, Deathmatch and Last Man Standing. The last two were the weakest of the bunch, because the AI is just not that good at derby. During the "regular" races, it was pretty evident that there's some rubber-banding involved, but it didn't bother me that much. More chances of sending them flying with warheads, then. So, if you like FlatOut, I would definitely recommend this game.

<span class="bold">Majotori</span> (Android)

Even though it's also available for PC (of the Windows, Mac, or Linux variety), it being a little trivia game designed to be played in short bursts, I decided to go with the Android version on my phone.

Its premise is very simple: each time you'll be presented with a few comic-like panels explaining a certain situation -- usually one in which someone is having some trouble. Then the character in question will wish for something (again, usually the wish is to overcome the difficult situation), and at that precise moment Lariat the witch will appear, offering a deal: the wish will become true if a round of 10 trivia questions is correctly answered.

Probably, the main selling point of this game are the questions from those trivia rounds: the topics they cover are mainly (modern day) cinema, animation, and video games, with a pinch of miscellaneous questions here and there. You can even tune (up to a certain point) the relative frequency of each category, in case you aren't so good with a particular topic (like me and anime). Oh, and there's no need to answer correctly the whole 10 questions in each round: the more questions you get right, the higher your chances of your wish getting true.

And so, depending on whether Lariat grants those wishes or not, the personal stories of each character will evolve in different ways. I've now reached a point where the stories have started repeating themselves, so after replaying a bunch of them trying to get a different ending from my first playthrough, I think I'll declare this game beaten. What has yet to repeat itself (that I can remember) is even a single question, which speaks volumes of the dev's dedication to the game (and of the size of its question pool!).




<span class="bold">Never Alone (+ Fox Tales DLC)</span>

Got it last week in the still ongoing Humble Indie Bundle 16 (so you can still get it until the 8th of March). Its Windows and Mac versions are also available here, but the Linux one is still missing. Your loss, GOG.

Anyhow, the first thing one notices when playing (or looking at screenshots of) this game, is how beautiful it is. And, believe it or not, it's made with the Unity engine! So here's another one to put on the list of games for countering the old argument that Unity is a shitty engine: Unity is not inherently bad, there only happens to be a lot of weak (or lazy) devs that give it a bad name. But I digress again. The game looks really nice, and besides it was conceived as a way to divulge the lore and history of the Alaskan Iñupiat people. To that end, throughout the game you'll be able to unlock several documental-like short videos that explain different aspects of life in the Arctic, and some of their people's legends and folklore (which for the most part get reflected in the game either as plot devices or enemies). All in all, this goes to show that you don't always need to make up new stories and fantastic worlds in order to have an interesting game. Sometimes it's enough to turn your gaze to real parts of the Earth and its peoples, as demonstrated here.

As I said, at first sight the game looks perfect. However once you've played it for a while, its flaws become apparent. You see, it's a puzzle platformer clearly designed to be played in local co-op. I guess it must be tons of fun playing it alongside a friend or your children, but lonely people like me (if loneliness wasn't punishment enough) get to endure the terrible AI that takes charge of the character you're not currently controlling. Be prepared to die time and again as a result of the AI miscalculating a jump. Most of the time it's no big deal as the platforming is not that difficult and checkpoints are frequent, but in certain sequences where timing and precision is of the essence I was seriously tempted to ragequit.

If you happen to regularly watch TB's WTF Is... videos, and remember the one about this game, you'll probably have noticed my opinion seems suspiciously similar to his. And that's just because it is. I do agree with him that Never Alone is a gorgeous-looking game, but mechanically (even if you leave the terrible friendly AI out of the discussion) it's nothing extraordinary or particularly innovative. Where I don't agree with him, though, is about the "cultural insight" videos and their use. While I concede that stopping in mid-game to watch them can somehow break the flow of your experience, in general they seemed to me like a perfect complement to the game's story, as they usually give you a good insight of what you just experienced in-game or what is about to come (like that delightful legend about the northern lights' spirits that would just rip off the head of any child who forgot to put on their hood). By leaving them all for the end, or not watching them at all, you risk losing a great part of what's happening during your playthrough.




My list of finished games in 2016

Finished Syndicate, the FPS from 2012. It was quite average: shooting is quite good and the hacking possibilities keep things interesting. But the story is incredibly mediocre and the graphics hurt my eyes (the colors).

Full list here.

The Adventures of Lomax (Playstation via Android on GPD Q9)

It's the Lemmings Jump'n'run and a quite unique one that was somewhat ahead of its time.
The mechanic of walking and jumping between various layers of the background makes the levels larger without making them extremely long and gives you no possibility of flying through with some tricks like the cape in Mario World or the skirt in Mario Bros. 2.
The graphics are very good and the music has high audio quality thanks to CD Audio so it aged extremely well.
You don't kill ememies by jumping on them but shake them to their senses (they're all bewitched lemmings) by whirling around against them.
There is a PC version too (not here in GoG unfortunately) but I am happy to have played the Playstation port because it woulb have been unlikely for me to beat this game without quicksaves and retyping passwords all the time as well as having to replay whole areas because I constantly die due to the low range of the camera. You can look up and down a bit by using the left shoulder buttons but not much and what you'd really need would be to look farther left and right. Collision guessing and landing on the right spots is sometimes quite hard thanks to the nicely decorated landscape and big colorful sprites.

In spite of me being bad at jump'n'runs in my old days and being a bit unwilling to replay areas, it's a beautiful game though and maybe the PC version will come to GoG someday, vote for it here: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/adventures_of_lomax

List

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

My first completed GOG game in ages. Easily one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. You have to see it to believe it. It is helped by the fact that there is no HUD, no inventory, etc... so, no breaking of immersion.

The story is interesting, even if I won't tell a thing about it here, to avoid spoilers. But there's only one path and one ending to my knowledge, so don't expect any replayability. It's more an interactive, puzzle-solving story than a game, anyway.

I quite liked it, but I'd say there were a couple of game design that i found not so good. The main is that your character really walks too slow, which is a handicap in such a game. So I ended running most of the second part of the game. Tje other gripe I had is that the way to find clues is not so intuitive... but once you get the grip of it, it's not so bad.

A good one-time experience. If you like to be told stories in a really stunning evironment, go for it!

So far in 2016: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2016/post46

Saints Row 2 (360)

This game was just awesome, the most fun sandbox GTA style game I've played so far. Compared to SR3 (which i played when it came out), i prefer the SR2 overall story progression and how it ties directly to taking over the city of Stillwater. In SR3 taking over Steelport was sort of more a side quest and separate from the main story quests, in SR2 taking the city and the story is one and the same thing. Otherwise it's full of the usual Saints Row over-the-top side activities- my favorites being the Fuzz missions where you take on the role of a fake cop performing acts of Police brutality for a bogus Reality TV show.

Some of the stuff you do is pretty funny. But the really amusing thing about this game was that the unscripted incidental stuff was funnier than the actual scripted story humor. For example, i just love how you can be just standing around doing nothing, when a minor traffic incident will occur nearby which will soon escalate into a brawl and 5 minutes later it's a full riot with cars exploding all over the place- all without the player doing anything. It's a bit like the Suburb I live in actually!
Even the poor AI of enemies (and your own Homies for that matter) is actually more funny than annoying. Except for one rule (this is important): never let one of your own Homies pick up an RPG. I lost count of the times these inept idiots got us all blown to hell because they fired an RPG right into the wall we're standing next to. It got so bad that I often had to shoot my own Homies (or throw them off a roof on one occasion) for my own protection after they picked up an RPG and looked like using it.

Unfortunately the game isn't the best looking in it's class, even for it's era. Plus the city just looks a bit dull. But it makes up for it through game play. Frame rates could also drop a bit during really huge scenes where hoards of riot police and enemies were out in force. But mostly it ran smooth- way smoother than it runs on PC anyway! The PC version isn't all that great. But if you can get it running well or have an Xbox 360, then play this game.
I put over 40 hours into it, that's pretty good value for a A$2.90 purchase.

Broken Sword (Original Version)

Overall I've really enjoyed the game even if the story got a little weird in the end. Can't really say that I completely understood what the Neo-Templars were up to.

Graphics are timeless because of their cartoonish nature and will probably still work very well in another 20 years. Music was great. Dialogues and characters were very well written and most of the puzzles were fair (there was only one at the excavation site that I consider unfair, because you have to do something that the game told you not to do before).

I can definitely recommend this game to every point and click adventure fan (but most of them have probably played it by now anyhow).


Lost Constellation

The second Night in the Woods supplemental game. It is a rather philosophical ghost story and it's absolutely beautiful. A masterpiece when it comes to atmosphere. Cant't wait to play the "real" game in fall.

Complete list of finished games in 2016

Sakura Swim Club
Another VN in the Sakura series. Having only played Sakura Spirit so far, it seems very similar with regards to UI and visual assets. Very common tropes are apparent between the two, revolving around two girls that originally have mixed feelings about you, turning into love towards the end (or lust for uncensored patches).

The story this time sets you in a school setting where you join a swim club. End. You also get the school festival activity, like in every VN, but the story has nothing much to appreciate. Overall, you should already have an idea of the type of games the Sakura series are. You don't play them for the plot...unless you really have nothing to do on a weeknight.

Good
- 7/10

Second Sight (PS2)

Last month I played Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy which is a game about a soldier with psychic abilities, Second Sight is also a game about a soldier with psychic abilities, both games came out in 2004 as well, spooky. Made by the same people as the Time Splitters franchise, this is a story about Dr John Vattic who wakes up in a hospital, badly wounded and covered in scars, as he tries to make sense of what's going on he finds out he has psychic powers. Like most protagonists he's suffering from amnesia and his past life comes back to him in a series of flashbacks. The locations make it seem like a horror film, as they include an Insane Asylum, Sewers and a creepy Russian Village.

As mentioned above I can compare this to Psi-Ops which was also a decent game. The story is much better in this game, also it doesn't end on a cliffhanger unlike Psi-Ops. Gameplay however was better in Psi-Ops, you can't use Telekinesis to throw someone into a furnace in Second Sight, also there aren't any bosses. However I much preferred this game because unlike Psi-Ops it didn't add a stupid mechanic that ruined the last two levels (Aura View). Anyway this was a great game, so was Psi-Ops, I believe they're also both available on PC.

Just finished Saints Row: The Third. What can I say? I really loved this one. I have yet to get the other ending and maybe replay it and choose the other choices.