After almost 10 years I've revisited original Unreal Tournament. It has aged remarkably well, shooting is still as fast paced as I remember it, and Xan still is a cheating bastard. It's still all kinds of awesome! I'm considering another run with difficulty cranked up.
Highly recommended!

Full Throttle Remastered (Linux)

The game still holds up well today although rather on the short side and I just love the dystopian future biker theme.
Now when it comes to the work of Double Fine I'm on the fence. On the one hand it's really cool to be able to switch between the languages in audio and subs and between the old and remastered graphics, on the other hand they only remastered less than half of the images, there's still a lot that just has some HD filter applied and nothing more which makes for a weird mix at times with the actual HD characters and vehicles. The biggest problem is, that they didn't add frames so the extremely low frame-rate scenes look even weirder in HD than they did back then when it was just due to hardware limitations.
The first cut-scene had a major desync between video and audio but apart from that, it looked and played good.

I have to do a double rating here:
Actual game: 8/10
Remaster: 5/10

Momonga Pinball Adventures

And interesting concept - story mode based pinball with short pinball levels representing story points. However it's just an unlabeled Episode 1 with the "story" over extremely quickly. The meat is in trying to get all 5 challenges for each level/table, and especially the time based ones are too frustrating for me. It's also annoying that you can only do 1 challenge in 1 go, with the next one being unlocked upon completion of the current one.

Primordia

Another excellent Wadjet Eye Games published point&click adventure game. Mechanic-wise it's pretty standard for the genre, but the story & characters are very good. Not the most colorful of games tho.

Puzzle Bots

An older Wadjet Eye title that has more in common with Gobliins & escape-the-rooms than standard adventure games. Very fun and cute, if also very short and rather easy.

Heavy Bullets

An all right low-tech FPS roguelite, but didn't draw me in (or should I say get me addicted) like many other roguelites do.

A Golden Wake

Not a standard point & click adventure game. I liked somethings it did, but not others. Overall, it's probably my least favorite Wadjet Eye Game (of the ones on Steam which are the only ones I've played.)

The Shivah

And so concludes my hastily thrown together end-of-year resolution to beat all the WEG games on Steam that I hadn't gotten around to yet. Well, technically I beat the original version of The Shivah 5 years ago, but this time around I played the "remastered" version on Steam. Though not sure if it actually counts as remastered or not, but whatever.

Still a good, if short, game. Some illogical parts (WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU CALLING THE COPS FOR HELP??). Had to look up the solution to one puzzle online, wasn't too proud of that.

Looks like Shadow Warrior (2013) will be the last game I completed in 2017. Just finished it up a few minutes ago.

It was quite a fun game with a surprisingly good, interesting story. Some of the jokes throughout fell kind of flat, but some were also really good and even made me laugh out loud several times. The combat was fun, with some interesting and unique mechanics. I'll definitely consider picking up Shadow Warrior 2 in the future.

_________________


The full list of my games completed in 2017 (at least, that I can remember):

Clive Barker's Undying
Divine Divinity (and actually finished a second playthrough about a couple of weeks ago)
Divinity 2
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
The Elder Scrolls Online (main story and some of the other content)
Mirror's Edge
Painkiller: Black Edition
Shadow Warrior (2013)
System Shock 2
Turok
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Unreal 2: The Awakening

Candle (Linux)

This game is pretty much like the first Oddworld in so many ways but the colors.
The visual design, animations and music are great - no doubt -, it has many flaws though.
First of all a bug that makes the cutscenes play in a very low framerate while the game itself runs completely fluid.
The next thing is the complete lack of direct Input support, so it's either an XInput pad, keyboard or fiddling around with controller wrappers and emulators.
Story-wise the game is nicely made.
When it comes to the game-play it must be said that you'll die a lot and this is not your cute little adventure game like one would imagine, it's tough as nails.
There are some puzzles that are unfair since for example you have to make a leap of faith down an abyss to find a hidden switch or some rope and there is literally no clue anywhere in the game that you have to do it, even less where.
Several points in the game make you question your own deductions because even if you have the right idea, you'll die if it's not executed in a time frame with a tolerance of about 0.4 seconds and again there is no indicator when the right moment to press the button might be and you'll just have to die and try over and over again (including always a certain but mostly short way to get there again) until you hit the sweet spot, after looking at a walk-through telling you, that you had the right idea indeed in spite of dying from it.
I cannot by any means imagine finishing that without a walk-through although most of the game is doable without, there are several moments where you'll get inevitably stuck.

That said, I got this game as a Christmas present by a kind person and did enjoy it most of the time since I don't care too much using a walk-through, I didn't need one for Kona though and if you want to finish everything by yourself, this game might frustrate you a lot.

6/10

Orcs Must Die 2
An incredibly fun game. I thought that I'd eventually get tired of orcs being launched screaming into the air and down cliffs by springboard traps, but I never did :D
If at all possible play this with a friend.


Kingdom Come : New Lands + Skull Island DLC
It's a weirdly addictive game and I had a lot of fun with it. I loved the art style and general atmosphere of the game but I can understand if some people are put off by it. If you're not and you'd like to try a weird strategy game then definitely consider this.
The gameplay is very simple and you only need the direction keys to play through a level. It's kind of like a 2D rts, except you don't control units directly. Apart from exploring you mostly run around collecting coins (from farmers and hunters mostly) and then running to where you want to spend them :
- recruiting villagers in the forest
- buying weapons/tools (which available villagers automatically equip themselves with)
- marking forest trees to be cut down to make space for towers and walls
- building/upgrading buildings
- ordering(ie paying) knights to attack

With the skull island dlc there are 6 islands that get progressively more difficult, but you can take several coins and troops/villagers with you to a next island to give you a head start. Apart from the islands getting more difficult you also have variation in the types of structures and mounts available. Each island can unlock a new type of forest structure, mount or base building. For example, one of the mounts is capable of hunting animals so you'll spend some time in the forest killing deer for coins. Whereas another mount is capable of charming forest deer so you can herd them and lead them back to your hunters.

Just be wary of cheap deaths as you start to learn the game. Death is unavoidable and very easy (being caught in the forest after dark mostly) while you're still learning the mechanics, though surprisingly easy to avoid once you do. But as soon as you think you know enough to attempt a playthrough I'd recommend making a backup of the save folder when you start a new island since it isn't possible load saves in the game. You might get impatient and decide to take a calculated risk only for it to blow up in your face. Losing most of 5+ hours of progress just isn't worth it. A simply backup of the save folder avoids this.

Lure of the Temptress - 2/5

Excuse me.

First off, the pathfinding is quite likely the worst I've ever seen. Basically, "Hey, can I talk to you?", "Sure, but first I'm going to pace up and down a few times, walk around in a circle, and maybe do a bit of a dance". Pretty much everything to do with character interaction in this game is absolutely aggravating.

Excuse me.

At least it's free...but so is Beneath a Steel Sky - which I'd consider to be one of the best adventure games ever made. BaSS makes good on the promises that LotT makes - it does dynamic NPC behaviour and directable companion characters incredibly well.

Excuse me.

In summary: the game feels like a crude, but solid foundation from which a good game could be built. That good game being Beneath a Steel Sky. So maybe play that instead...

The Final Station (2016)
(gift from DampSquib - thank you!)

I was interested in the game from the first trailer I saw. It's interesting indie approach to post-apo theme and I'm not disappointed after finishing the game. It has nice atmosphere - pessimistic and melancholic, built by nice pixel-graphics and hypnotising music. Gameplay-wise is rather meh, but the overall experience is really nice. It was a few hours worth spending.

List of all games completed in 2017.

South Park The Fractured but Whole (Xbox One)

Just like The Stick of Truth and picks up right where it finished. If you despise the TV series then don't even think of playing it, the game play will not convert you. If you are like me though and look to South Park for most of your worldly moral guidance and commentary on world events, then you should also love the game as well.

I played the game along side watching seasons 14 through 19 and the game is absolutely chock full of references from those TV episodes, but is still very much it's own story.

This time the kids are playing at superheroes and all the TV personas appear.. The Coon, Captain Diabetes, Call Girl etc.
And of course your characters main superpower is the ability to unleash farts so powerful they can tear the very fabric of space and time. So you are way overpowered yes.

Combat is a bit more tactical this time. Instead of the usual JRPG turn based style of the first game, this time you can move over a small grid area...a bit more like Kings Bounty for example, but with individual characters instead of armies and you have proper ranged combat abilities as well.

A lot of fun overall, but I think I liked The Stick of Truth just a bit better. Towards the end I got the feeling that the makers were just drawing things out a bit much to extend the games length for no real reason. But if you like South Park, it's still a no brainer - you will need to pay it sometime. Ran perfectly and no crashes. I had one bug early on where the game would not let me choose a dialogue with the Coon to progress and I had to reload an earlier save, but that was the only issue.

Wolfenstein: The New Order (Xbox One)

Actually a very decent modern FPS. Best of all it's single player only, so no concessions to multiplayer or co-op. Funnily enough if you read comments of online reviews you STILL get people complaining about the game for no multiplayer or co-op....like there isn't enough of those shooters out there already.

Anyway the game ran locked to 60fps and looked well enough without being a tech masterpiece or anything. Good game play, great weapons that make a nice solid sound. Good level design, proper villains without any grey areas, decent check pointing system that never meant repeating unfair amounts of game. It told it's far fetched super Nazi story without intrusive cutscenes, those mostly only coming at levels end or major milestones in the plot. A good balance between slow stealth and frantic run and gun shooting scenarios.

The only negative for me was a tendency for the enemies to spam grenades like they were an unlimited supply of lollipops or something. A pet annoyance of mine in many games. Grenades DO weigh something and soldiers do not carry 20 of them and you cannot throw them 100m.

But overall a pretty great example of how to make a modern shooter and still contain the spirit of the old ones.

I've started The Old Blood but will not be finishing before tomorrow, so that's it for 2017. Highlights from finished games this year:
1. AC Origins (XB1X)- just had great fun in this world and would be GOTY if it wasn't for PUBG.
2. Gears of War 4 (XB1X)- just perfectly balanced cover shooting fun with never a dull moment in the campaign.
3. Far Cry 2 (360)- best of the series by far.
4. Dead Rising 2 (360)- even better than the first game.
5. Mafia 3 (PS4)- yes I know I'm the only person that likes it.
6. Mad Max (XB1)- yes I know I'm the only person that likes it.
7. Crimson Skies (XB1X)- in 4k! this needs a reboot and rumors are that MS is working on it.
8. Ratchet and Clank (PS4)
9. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)- good but not as great as the media says.
10. Oxenfree

I just started it this week. I'm having a lot of fun (hey, it's South Park), but personally I've run into a consistent issue in which NPCs won't always load properly; i.e., they'll be standing in the room but completely still, you can't interact with them, and you can even run right through them like they're ghosts. Usually it's no big deal, just exit and re-enter the room and they load up fine, but there have been a couple of instances in which I've had to reload because it'll pull this mess during cutscenes, which basically kills the game because Cartman or someone will be talking to someone and the response will never come to advance the scene. Kind of annoying, but like I said I'm still having fun.

Last game of the year is Space Pilgrim, the fourth episode. I liked that series of 4 episodes. Simple but clever puzzles, good story and ok graphics (if you don't mind RPG Maker graphics).

Full list here.

Silent Shock 2

I started the year off with Thief, which I realised dishonoured was heavily influenced by. I finish the year with System Shock 2, which I realised Bioshock was heavily influenced by. Most people know the gist of it so I won't go into the story and gameplay too much, but like thief it hasn't aged too badly and is still perfectly playable (Only encountered 1 bug, a graphical glitch) and enjoyable. If you liked Bioshock, it is basically the same game, by which I mean minus the story and characters, it's 90% similar. I do have a few irks, a lack of subtitles, which most games of this age suffer from, and unlike the enemies that roam the ship, you aren't told the strategy to defeat the 2nd to last boss in an audiolog (Unless I missed it) which left me running around killing endlessly respawning enemies. It also suffers the flaw most survival horrors have in that, if you master melee and spec into it, the game becomes incredibly easy. However those negatives don't even put a dent into how I felt about the game, it was amazing and I'd heartily recommend it to anyone.

I never beat the game, and I can't remember how far I got, either. Which difficulty did you play on?