Grim Legends 2 - Song of the Dark Swan

Not as good as the first one storywise, but a much more streamlined interface and a general smoother everything. Except from that, it's a good HOG/Puzzle game.

So far in 2020: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2020/post29

The second part was the weakest, but the third one (Grim Legends 3: The Dark City) is the best in the trilogy!
However, to be honest, I don't pay too much attention to the story in these games, I'm only interested in puzzles :)

A Boy and His Blob (2016) (Linux)

Actually I haven't finished the game and I'm not going to finish it. In general I liked the game – and my kids also liked it. But after 15 hours of playing together and separately we're simply tired with its mechanics. It's nice as long as puzzles requires to creatively use blob's abilities. But at some point it becomes repetitive. You know what to do, but it's not easy to execute. Some parts become harder, needs timing and precision, which may be frustrating, because controls and physics in the game are definitely not perfect. That's the reason I don't want to keep trying to complete the game.

List of all games completed in 2020.

You Have to Win the Game. I had played through most of this back when I was playing a lot of freeware indie games and I was impressed with how it replicated the feel of old platform games with its CGA graphics and CRT monitor filter. Of course nowadays there are too damn many games that try to skirt by on retro aesthetics, but it was still somewhat novel when this came out. The premise is simply that you're stuck in this cavern full of traps and you need to explore and solve a puzzle to win. I've always had a soft spot for games where the premise is something as simple as "explore this cave", which is kind of ironic since I'm way too claustrophobic to do any serious spelunking in real life.

The game isn't very long and it's mostly fairly easy although there were two or three parts that gave me fits and took dozens of tries for me to pass. If you fail to solve the final puzzle, you'll get knocked back to the start. You'll keep your upgrades but you'll have to get all the way back to the puzzle room to try again, which is a bit of a pain.


Super Win the Game. As the first game was inspired by early-80s flip screen platformers, this one is inspired by NES games like Mario 2 and Zelda 2. You now have an overworld to move around, going among various towns and dungeons to complete your quest. I think it's actually slightly easier than the first one and doesn't take much longer to beat. I enjoyed it but I would say I prefer the first because I liked its spookier atmosphere.

Adding to the list

Mission Impossible III (J2ME)

As a kid, I didn't have a handheld console, and I've played on a mobile phone. Lately I've been thinking of the games I've played and the other day I have fixed the last "dumb" phone I had before moving to smartphones, SE W20i. I am really looking forward to playing those J2ME games!
Mission Impossible III was made by Gameloft, which back in the day mostly meant licenced and mostly fluid. It's really short, and my memory of J2ME games is really rose tinted but I've enjoyed playing it. Well worth your 30 minutes or so it takes to beat.

Deus Ex GO (Android)

Puzzle game, very similar to Lara Croft GO and Hitman GO. Some quite difficult puzzles towards the end that I had to look at the walk-through to solve. No nickle dimming to toss it an extra coin or two and no ads, which despite being a paid for game is always great to see in this day and age. You can pay for some undos and solutions for puzzles, but you can really do without those.
Very enjoyable, despite some weirdly glitched visuals on my phone, such as text writing over itself.

Haha, to be honest, I bought this game as a "HOG" and I was disappointed there are so many puzzles. I don't like puzzles in games, I have too many memories of the "old" era of point-and-click where you had to solve enigmas and puzzles that made no sense ^_^

But, you know, story isn't the strongest part of these games :) The style of narrative is terrible and playing these games I pay less and less attention.
In my case - I bought them as "HOG", but I also don't like "HO" part xD Hidden object scenes are usually boring and unnatural for me. And also using items! It's always very reasonable (no nonsense, as on old p&c), but after using hammer, saw and pincers in the most obvious way I miss Monkey Island style ;)
I really like only the puzzles - the mechanisms, locks etc. They also become repetitive, but amazing graphics in Artifex Mundi games makes them enjoyable enough to keep playing for me :)

Whatever you like - have a nice adventures!

Type:Rider (2013) (Linux)

Something absolutely unique! If you're interested in typography, you'll fall in love in the game. It's perfectly designed, visually stunning. You're, well, two dots. The gameplay is, I believe, puzzle-platformer. Your mission is to collect all letters of the alphabet and also some asterisk. It'll reveal pages/topics from history of typography – from cave paintings to pixel art. I think it may be interesting even if you're not exactly interested in the subject. The game works perfectly both as a relaxing puzzle to solve and as a nice course Gentle Introduction to Typography.

List of all games completed in 2020.

The Wanderer (NWN:EE, CEP version)

Review

The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles (GOG)

I started it last year and it took me this long to finally get around to finishing it. It took so long because it wasn't all that great, the puzzles were really stupid and illogical and people had too much to say and waffled on a bit. Not as good as the first game and its sequel, though it does provide background story as to how Nate and Critter became partners. Also the art is quite good and it's easy to run at 4K where it is incredibly sharp. But them puzzles...

Of course it could just be that I don't have the patience anymore for this type of point and click adventure. Long gone are the 90's where I finished (without walkthroughs) games like the Gabrielle Knight games, Simon the Sorcerer and I actually even finished Noctropolis without a walkthrough. These days, with more games to play I just don't have the patience to stare at the same screens for hours figuring out some ridiculous illogical puzzle.

Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis - Remastered

Unfortunately the remastered version got rid of the 'Creepy Watson' glitch but it is still a pretty decent game. SH:N is a point and click where you play as the eponymous Sherlock as he attempts to foil a plot by master thief Arsene Lupin to embarrass the English through a series of daring heists, you can't let a thief, let alone a FRENCH thief, embarrass the country! The game is only set in 5 locations, yet you could be spending up to 2 hours in one of these locations due to the size, amount of interactable objects and the large amount of puzzles in each area. While most point and clicks will have the standard "Find these 3 items to progress" this game has "Find 6 items" or "Solve 9 riddles", often requiring a good memory and strong mental maths skills (or a calculator). The puzzles can be quite difficult, thankfully there is a hint system that you can use for the more difficult ones, although I appear to have a different interpretation to the developers on what a 'star' looks like. The story is a combination of serious moments by Sherlock, combined with some more ludicrous instances with Lupin (Such as surfing across a rope using a stone tablet). One notable thing is that they haven't get the pronunciation of certain words consistent, Sherlock, Watson and Lestrade all pronounce 'Arsene' differently. Also there is a surprising amount of Lovecraft references in this game. At its sale price, I say this game is a good deal, the hint system means you'll rarely have to leave the game to consult a walkthrough and it's got a fairly decent story. I'd recommend it.

Headliner: NoviNews, June 11 (Itch)-The game is fun but I think works better as an idea than the actual execution. I didn't admit it to any of the NPCs but I really was just stamping stories with little rhyme or reason. Although once I took a 'side' I tried to stay consistent at least until the end. Unfortunately I had no real in game motives for being good or being a complete jackass so I wasn't nearly as invested in the story aspects as I could have been. Also playing it now seemed a little surreal with some of the stories. Not bad but not my favorite.

Full List

So, for my birthday I treated myself to a PlayStation VR V2 headset + Move controllers. My set came with a whole bunch of VR games but I decided to start with PlayStation VR Worlds, a tiny game compilation that effectively comes with five different games that serve a bit as demos for what VR and PSVR specifically is capable of. All of them are fairly short but very different.

So far I've "completed" three of those although all of them have some "challenges"

The first one I tried was Ocean Descent at my wife's request. This one's effectively just a ten-minute 3D movie without any form of interaction. You get dropped in a cage to the bottom of the ocean and eventually your cage is attacked by a shark. It looks decent and gets pretty immersive if you play it while standing. It's a decent option for people who are more curious about VR than video games (like my wife). Besides the shark attack it's also pretty calm and risk-free and you can even watch two shots of it in isolation without any drama. It's a pretty good first step into VR, I guess.

The second one I beat was Scavenger's Odyssey. This one's a brief shooter where you control a mech using the DualShock 4. It's probably the closest to what I had VR in mind for (action game with a cockpit) but it's a quite underwhelming. It's a very generic sci-fi experience with a plot involving aliens and a prophecy. What you do is just walk around corridors and platforms in vacuum shooting some Zerg-like aliens, plus there's a jumping mechanic that catapults you to the point you're looking at. You can also jump at some walls which can make your whole mech spiral like crazy (I bet this game got a whole bunch of people to vomit). It's a fairly impressive VR demo but sadly a very mediocre game.

Finally I beat London Heist which is certainly the winner of the compilation. It's a brief crime thriller that comes with several separate scenes and is controlled using two Move controllers where you can typically grab stuff and shoot guns. I had trouble following the plot (the British gangster accents didn't help) but good lord, in terms of immersion it's ridiculous. It looks fantastic, has brilliant character animations and the audio is mindblowingly good, you really feel like the characters are physically in front of you. When they asked the silent protagonist questions I always felt the urge to respond to them. It's sadly a very brief experience with two key scenes: in one you're behind a desk, looking through its drawers in search for a valuable gem and eventually you get attacked by a bunch of guards which results in a shootout. It's okay but not great. But then comes a car chase scene and that one's utterly amazing. Your car gets attacked by other vehicles and you defend yourself with an SMG. It's ridiculously intense and satisfying and feels so immersive. You can even do stuff like lean out of your window and shoot at motorcycles behind your van and when you aim right the driver gets a nervous face and pushes himself into his seat so you won't hit him. It's glorious and I must have looked like a total dumbass as I swung around my move controller with a grin on my face. The cool thing is that the same studio turned this little demo into a full-fledged game called Blood & Truth which is apparently quite amazing. Can't wait to play that one!

I didn't beat the two remaining games yet and am not sure I will. One is called VR Luge and, as the name implies, you're strapped to a board and (as the name does not imply) speed down a public street, steering by tilting your head. This one was the most disappointing to me. The handling is IMO crap, it behaves shoddily whenever you hit anything and even the graphics and immersion aren't that great. It's a time race with four levels - I reached the third level two times and gave up.

Finally there's Danger Ball which is effectively VR Pong, lol. The paddle is controlled by turning one's head. It's actually pretty fun and satisfying, the Tron-like graphics are quite effective and the sound is ridiculously juicy. I'm not a fan of aiming where you look which is actually a lot less responsive or intuitive than one would think (plus I guess one can get a neck injury when it gets too dramatic, lol). A decent twist is that there's a championship with different opponents with unique mechanics, e.g. one opponent has two paddles, another can split the ball in two, yet another can grab the ball and "snipe" it. It's pretty cool but at least to me it's also pretty darn difficult. I might still try to beat the championship, though.

Anyway, I probably wouldn't recommend PlayStation VR Worlds as an individual purchase since it's really mostly a demo for stuff that other games do on a larger scale (especially now that Blood & Truth is out) but since it's bundled with most (if not all) PSVR sets it seems like the perfect place to start one's VR adventure. :)

We Were Here Too

My opinion on it is basically the same as the one on We Were Here.

I thought this paid episode would be a bit longer than the free one, but I didn't notice much difference in content and length. There was still time pressure involved in some puzzles, and it still didn't add that much to the challenge and fun, IMO, although at least this time it didn't impair the threatened player by reducing their field of view. The final puzzle required to solve in order to let both players escape was still pretty shitty, not based on clues and only solvable by accident or by replaying the game from scratch (although it doesn't really have replay value). And the background felt a bit random, it didn't seem like I was experiencing a consistent story that I should pay any attention to. It was not scary either, there were sometimes ghostly voices but they were hard to understand.

On top of that, the game was somewhat unstable. I had a crash on start the first time I ran it, while my co-op partner had endless loading with black screen. A restart of the game on my end and a reboot of my partner's PC on their end solved the issues, but it also happened to us on two different occasions that one of us fell through the floor of the level. And when we had to restart the game once in the middle of our playthrough, two checkpoints and something else we had done before hadn't been saved and we had to repeat two puzzles which was tedious.

All in all we still had fun, it's a neat distraction for two, if you're into escape room puzzles, and since I only paid 3 EUR, it was well worth it, but I think at the regular price I would have been disappointed.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Ultimate Sith Edition)

I've just finished the main game + all DLCs. It's a fun action game with some great cinematics. I prefer adventure oriented games but I've already finished the KOTOR games and there aren't any other Star Wars games like that.
Still, I'd like to play TFU2 too, and some day Fallen order - which looks like a 'spiritual successor'.