Banner Saga 3 - 4/5

A very enjoyable game, just like the previous installments. However, I'd consider it to be, by far, the weakest of the three. The biggest issue is the pacing; it felt like they knew how they wanted the narrative to conclude, but then later realised that they had to turn that narrative into a full standalone game.

Regardless, I'm glad to have finally made my way to the end of the saga. It was a wild journey.

Disciples: Sacred Lands Gold
Started it last July, finished the campaigns in a month, but then considered that "Divine Empire" series of scenarios as basically an expansion, so poked at them on and off, since it gets tedious to have to start over each time, being separate scenarios and nothing carrying over. So now considering it finished since I finally finished that series as well. Will write a full review, hopefully in no more than a few days, but until then leaving the messy notes I made over time about it:

Annoying undead sounds, banshee maybe worst. Animations feel way too long after a while, and there's also that move to capital at start of turn, plus summons dying. Notification for each item taken on map instead of list. No way to take all or all stack or split stack. Bug losing level up choice if leveling at end of scenario and reloading starting save in next (wonder if same happens on autosave load, don't think I checked). Noticed autosave bug when some AI advances (summons, exp/upgrade at least) made after my end of turn existed when reloading autosave from said end of turn. AI definitely knows my armies without spies. Weird to need to avoid winning too soon those campaign scenarios requiring transforming a certain percentage. Would want at least a grid, to see how far armies can go. Oddly high number of misses at times, and in general chances can still make things odd, like definitely statistically possible to have 4-5 misses in a row at 75% chance to hit, but doesn't feel right. Quite liked final Legions scenario, seemed to stand out, and some more planning seems to have been put in it. Odd choice to have area controlled on top but toggle for resources. Human archers are more accurate than elven ones? See MobyGames forum entry for race comparison. Divine Empire scenarios seem rather silly in some ways, and what's with the all caps shop descriptions? Then basically same map for multiple DE scenarios, though last ones have different and actually interesting maps (very last is a joke though, AI can't quite get past that dragon, doesn't dare though it should have little trouble). AI not winning prizes, though of course game'd be awfully difficult if it was good, but seeing it consider wards and immunities as the same and waste attacks randomly attacking units with either is messed up, and it doesn't even keep track of which wards were used up, also spreading casting and summon attacks among different targets and summoning in wrong places, needing to go around to reach target or not reach at all. Usually crashes after about one hour, so need to quit and get back in. Remember the connection attempt and freeze if it can't. Initiative is listed +/- 5, damage listed to listed+5. Diplomacy rather tacked on, and having lord descriptions there means they'll rarely even be noticed. No saved guard stance. Would want a turn count in combat since attacker flees automatically on turn 11.

I've been playing this one too. I have some issues with it and its not on the list of favorite games played this year but it still has than one more turn draw going for it.

Some of the things I find frustrating: The constant misses during combat in the early parts of each map are definitely annoying. The game and the maps seem very repetitive. I wish more than just one leader could be transferred between maps. The transfer/conquer the land maps are a little strange. Other than ease of movement for some units there is no benefit to controlling more land. If needed you could just plant a bunch of rods near all the resources. I also feel that additional cities don't really do anything except extend your reach to more resources. I'm not really sure why you can't have a leader inside a city instead of just on the outside. I still have 1.5 of the campaigns and all of the Divine Empire maps but its a bit of a slog.

The large majority of units have 75% hit chance, so really whether early or late it should be largely the same. Few increase when they level up, actually the whole list is ghost -> specter (65->70%), banshee/baroness (65/65/70/70/75... if you ever get a rod bearer to that sort of level), archer -> marksman (80->85)... and then there's of course that switch from demonologist to incubus, which marks a drop, 75->65, but also a change from damage to petrify. But sometimes the randoms just seem messed up, either way it goes. May be somewhat more noticeable early on because the units being so weak and few, each hit matters more, there's less evening out.
What ease of movement of units? Ownership doesn't matter, movement cost is same. That ownership matters in scenarios that are won by owning a certain percentage of the map (see how you'll rush to plant rods on every little piece of land there), otherwise yep, it's a matter of just owning the resources. Also yep for cities, they do expand ownership quite fast if needed for that, but other than that they offer resupply places (heal/resurrect/recruit) and defensible positions.

Mountain Clan units move faster on snow. Not sure about any others.

I've been playing the game mostly with a single party destroying everything. I've found that more than about 3 parties and they get too few combats and are too weak to level up. New recruits are basically useless after the very early game and I only use them to garrison the cities. All of this may be a result of the difficulty (average).

Check out the level 1 Mountain Clan Forestwalk: Units will no longer suffer move penalty when venturing into forests.

Also I was unclear previously. I meant I garrison cities with a leader and army. And I also usually have one rod planter available.

Princess.Loot.Pixel.Again

Beat with all characters. An all right, if short on content, platformer roguelikelike. The sequel has much better reviews, but it's in Steam Early Access so I'll wait until it's officially released.

That's a spell, dwarves have movement spells, and darn cheap ones too, to balance out the fact that they're so slow otherwise. But that just reduces the movement cost on that type of terrain for a turn when cast, in that case from 4 to 2 for forests. Who owns that forested tile is irrelevant.

FRAMED 1+2 (aka FRAMED Collection)

It's an okay puzzle game. I like the stylized comic noir look and the music wasn't bad either. The story was almost non-existent though and when there was something happening apart from people sneaking away or chasing after each other, trying to get hold of a suitcase and escape their pursuers, I found it more confusing than gripping. At some points it looked like the story would branch depending on your choices, but no, it's 100% linear and pre-defined.

The gameplay consists of moving comic panels around until they're in the right order for the character not to die or get caught. It's very simple at first, gets a bit more complicated later on when you can rotate the pieces or slide them around in time to use them more than once, but basically that's it. It's not a bad concept, but it gets old after a while, because there are so many puzzle screens that are similar to each other. It's not a long game but the content feels stretched. I wish they'd have come up with more ideas on how to evolve that concept instead of just repeating it most of the time, and that the goals would have been more varied than just getting from first to last panel without being seen. They could have done more interesting stuff with this comic book style and noir setting than just making it one long chase. I guess it's pretty good for a mobile game, but on the PC I would have expected more.

Dungeon Siege III (Xbox One)

Somehow the IP ended up with Square Enix. And they gave the job to Obsidian. It is 3D isometric ARPG, but has no real connection to the first 2 DS games from what I can tell. Anyway, clicky clicky Diablo type RPG's are not my favorite genre, but in recent years I've found I can enjoy them when I want something that doesn't hurt the brain too much between longer games. And I had this one.

It's one of those games that defines averageness. Credit to Obsidian for coming up with a story that is a bit more than just "find the great sword of ass reaming plus 20 to defeat blah blah". But then it kind of ends up being a bit generic anyway. With a big bad person that runs away from you three times, despite being the most dangerous person in the lands. I hate runners.

The games mechanics are simple but do the job fine and the graphics hold up. A lot of optional lore is there if you want. Voicing is mostly well done, except for a few that sound a bit like those pre recorded train station time tables- a sign that the actors maybe didn't always have adequate context when doing their job.

From the ending you can see it was meant to be the start of a series. But I suppose sales were not adequate to continue. Anyway it was the 360 version played on Xbox One and the emulation worked a charm like always. Despite being only average overall, it was the type of game I was feeling like and still got some enjoyment from it. It takes between 13-14 hours.

The Tiny Bang Story (2011) (Linux)
(thank you LordMarlock for the game!)

It was delightful 4 hours. It's relatively simple hidden object game with some uncomplicated puzzles. I liked almost everything here - outstanding graphics, chill-out music, the level of difficulty (casual, but not always trivial), hint system (hints are not for free and are not always 1:1), gameplay in general. It was exactly the experience I expected earlier, when I tried Machinarium - which is a bit similar in art style, but totally different (and worse) in almost every other aspect.

That's sad the game has not Mac/Linux port here, on GOG - that's why I played Steam version. I hope this will change soon, but lack of GOG response may suggest that we should not expect it any time soon.

List of all games completed in 2018.

Beaten gun, it was fun but short though.

This Realm of Mine

A somewhat interesting & atmospheric half FPS/melee and half Walking Simulator through the developer's personal philosophy and theory on Life, the Universe and Everything. Got it in either a bundle or trade, I don't remember which exactly.

If you're only in it for the FPSing, you'll be disappointed. Even on the hardest difficulty, if you're a veteran FPSer, once you get a weapon the rest is easy peasy (except a little bit in the second level, and a litle bit in the last one). Though one level in the middle was very frustrating prior to making it to the weapon (died close to 10 times I think in the gauntlet).

NAM

This FPS build with the venerable Build Engine is for masochists only. I can only assume the devs wanted to give the players a taste of the horrors of war. Except IRL there's no quicksave/quickload, which I abused the hell out of to keep the game from abusing me. Why did I keep playing this? Stubborness I guess.

Block Survival: Legend of the Lost Islands

Very fun FPS with crafting & light rpg mechanics, though your enjoyment may vary depending on which random recipes you'll find first (though I guess you could just look them up online) and which weapon random(!) weapon upgrades you'll get when you purchase upgrades for your weapons. I lucked out, making even the most bullet spongy enemies in the last 1/3 of the game go down in under a second to my AK47 of Ultimate Destruction.

22.8 - Cthulhu Saves the World (PC)

I finally got round playing it, on a new (to me) Xbox 360 controller! It still holds up, even though some jokes haven't aged very well. Bloody shame I didn't play it when it was new.
Oh, and, Xbox 360 controller is much, much, much better than I thought it would be.