Ah, loopback wouldn't count. Wanted to say when I asked that I assume you allow loopback, since plenty of programs may use that.
Those Edgecast and CD Projekt (!) IPs though, if it won't work in SP without connecting, it's definitely something that shouldn't happen for a game sold on GOG...

Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist - 2/5

This game desperately, desperately wants to be funny (and let's face it, you'd be desperate too if you had to compete alongside Day of the Tentacle). It feels like they threw every joke they could think of at the wall, with the hope that maybe at least some of them will hit. Admittedly, there moments that got a laugh out of me. But, mostly, my reaction was 'yep, okay...I get the joke...'.

The humour mostly consists of low-hanging fruit: cringe-worthy stereotypes, low-effort puns, lots of poop and fart jokes; and when all else fails - just throw out some innuendo or maybe a referential joke.

In terms of gameplay, it's what you might fear from Sierra - a lot of annoying ways to die, and at least one way to softlock the game. Make sure you save a lot...and make sure you pick up the postcards...

A lot of the game feels like filler. The chemistry sections are novel, but end up getting tedious. And, as is typical of adventure games, the minigame/action sequences are straight-up bad - thankfully, lowering the difficulty level of these sections makes things pretty painless.

I can't exactly say I had high expectations, after all, we are talking about Al Lowe here, but I still winded up disappointed. It just seemed like this could have been something more...maybe...

Please, consider, that for spyless experience I had to deny outgoing communication each time game started, because when I set rule game did not start. So it can be maybe call in some free meaning of DRM free, but it is definitely very annoying. I cannot imagine, that I would pay for it.

Alien Rage

FPS from 2013. If anyone ever had any thought of playing the game, they shouldn't. There is simply no reason to pick this game. Except maybe if one played all existing working FPS and desperately needs something new.

The game is extremely bland, there is minimal variety of enemies and those that are present are very run-of-the-mill and boring. The whole enviroment is one long bluish corridor and starts to annoy rougly 20 minutes in. The weapons as well lack any fun and are the more bland one can imagine and it doesn't even feel well to use them.

Story is the most unimaginative stuff and the main protagonist is a big bald hill of muscles that lacks any personality. Niether of those is helped by the awful voice acting that on the other hand goes well with the rest of weak sounds.
There is some attempt of innovation by having perk system but to be honest, it includes one OP late-game perk and rest was kiind of letdown, most of them came late and those before were dumb percentage increase that excited nobody ever.

It was very soulless game and as I would have to agree with review I encountered after playing the game, it was made without any passion. It was just product intended to make money and there was no heart to it.

Yeah and it features regenerating health, so there is a lot of hiding to replenish in the middle of fight. Devs countered this by blasts from rockets and grenades hitting oyu even through cover so yeah, that's fun too.

Definitely one to be avoided.

I started playing GTA: Chinatown Wars on PSP recently but my PSP's battery died again and I figured that instead of getting another battery that may or may not work I'll treat myself to a PlayStation Vita which can apparently play a whole bunch of PSP games (including Chinatown Wars), perhaps the vast majority of them if you hack it. But I figured that instead of continuing Chinatown Wars I'll first see what that baby can really do and started with Killzone: Mercenary, since the Killzone series traditionally showcases PlayStation hardware very well. And at least Killzone 2 and 3 were some pretty awesome shooters in their own right. Aaand I already beat it.

It's good! I enjoyed it a lot more than Shadowfall actually. The first thing you notice is that it looks and sounds amazing for a handheld game. To me it's pretty impressive even today and we're talking about a game that's running on a handheld from eight years ago. Heck, the detail and visual design of the environments is impressive by any standards and also characters and animations are pretty awesome. And there's a lot of variety in the environments too.

And gameplay-wise it's pretty much the real thing. You have the original Killzone gunplay with its sluggish aiming and kick-ass guns and get to slaughter tons of (mostly) Helghast but it also has some of the stuff from Shadowfall, with basic stealth and a "VAN-Guard" system that mimics Shadowfall's OWL a bit: you can cast various equippable powers, e.g. a support drone that electrifies enemies, turn invisible or even launch air strikes. I also had a surprisingly large amount of fun with the melee system here which triggers a QTE which has you draw gestures on the touchscreen. It's basic but makes the melee kills even more satisfying to me. There's a even a little hacking mini game in there. It's a pretty big package, really.

On paper the main difference to other Killzone games, I guess, is that - in line with the game's mercenary theme - there's money which you farm with kills and which allows you to unlock and equip new gear (you can't pick up weapons dropped by enemies). It's pretty satisfying to unlock new stuff, especially the aforementioned VAN-Guard powers, and you won't even get close to unlocking everything in a single playthrough. I guess that's why you unlock new assignments here which means replaying the levels with certain challenges active. And I'm pretty sure the gear carries over to multiplayer which you can also play with bots. On top of that there's some "valour card" system which I did not get at all. Apparently you unlock poker cards for certain feats but I have literally no idea what they do.

And story-wise, well... the missions are a lot more detached than in the big Killzone games and start with a briefing that goes full Call of Duty: "blah blah, nukes, blah, the diplomat's butler, blah, very important, blah blah". Luckily there's some recurring characters and important plot points that you can't miss, so there's something to care about here even if you sleep through loading screen briefings like I do. But clearly it doesn't have the scale or emotional impact of the big games. Still, it's good enough for a little spin-off game.

So in summary: it's good. It definitely showcases the Vita's capabilities very well and it's simply a solid and satisfying shooter with only minor shortcomings. I can definitely see myself returning to this one once in a while and might check if people are still playing it online.

Just curious: why do you say "may or may not work"? Is it the PSP that's somehow broken?

It's the only portable console I've ever had (a present), but I've never played on it a lot. The only time I would use it is on the bus to work - but I can't (motion sickness). I guess it would work for turn based games...

Nah, the PSP itself is perfectly fine AFAIK and it never gives me any trouble when plugged in. The thing is that there's apparently a shortage of reliable PSP batteries at this point because both, the original Sony batteries and all the cheap third-party batteries are ancient and haven't been used in ages (or ever). It's at least what I read when I looked up why my original PSP battery is a bloated mess that does not even fit into the PSP anymore and why my cheap third-party replacement battery doesn't get recognised.

Oh yeah, I believe Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre are some of the best turn-based options on PSP (although I haven't tried them myself yet). Guess you might wanna try those. And there's of course the improved PSP ports of the first two Persona games. :)

Some games I've completed in the last two months:

My Memory of Us
This is a wonderful and heart-warming game about friendship, hope and courage in dark times. It's told through the eyes of two children and even if a lot of cruel and inhuman stuff is happening (the game is a parable about the life of jewish people in Poland during World War II), there is also a lot of childlike innocence and faith that in the end everything will be ok and friendship and love will overcome all obstacles.

Game is mostly point and click adventure and puzzle platformer, but there are also some stealth and action sequences. The artstyle is wonderful (mostly black and white with just just very few colour in between), so is the music. Patrick Stewart's voice-acting is also great.


Parsnip
A very short adventure with a lot of black humor. I liked the graphics and the weird protagonist (as well as some of the minor characters).


Campfire Cooking
A great puzzle game about roasting marshmallows. Similar to Stephan's Sausage Roll, but easier and more accessible. It's nice that you don't have to solve every level right away, but can instead skip one and come back at a later time. You have to solve all puzzles to get the bonus levels and the credits though.

I wish they would make a sequel or a DLC with more levels.


Jupiter Hell
I've completed a run on easy (which is in fact easy). There is still a lot to discover and unlock though and so I will keep on playing on higher difficulties. For an "in development" title the game is already very enjoyable and there is a lot of content.


Assassin's Creed
I've completed the game for the first time and I'm amazed how well it still looks after all these years. Regarding the gameplay it isn't spectacular and gets repetitive after a while, but I still had fun as long as it lasted. Difficulty isn't very balanced, game is easy most of the time, then it suddenly gets hars, before it gets very easy again.

I was surprised that the game ends with a cliffhanger (at least regarding the events in the present).

There are also some things that I've found annoying like no subtitles in a game with quite a lot of text (often spoken in the background) and the super-complicated way to quit the game.


Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle
A hilarious puzzle game in which you have to help Jason to kill everyone. The level design is quite good. hings start easy and slowly get harder and in every chapter new stuff gets introduced to keep things interesting. There are also two additional modes (Kill Marathon and Daily Challenge). In the end I was surprised that I've spent around 20 hours with this game.
I'm still missing some achievements, but I guess the only way to get them would be endless grinding or in-game purchases and I think it's neither worth the time nor the money.


BitTrip presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
By far not as hard as the first one. I've completed all levels except two on normal difficulty with Perfect or Perfect+ and it never got frustrating. Still missing some chests and retro levels, so I will keep the game installed and return to it to get the rest of the stuff (and also the five missing gold bars). Might also try how far I can get on hard difficulty.

Complete list of finished games in 2020

I'm not a fan of JRPG and/or anime graphics where everything looks "cute" and overly colorful (or contains infant/teenage 'rockstars').

Still, thanks for the tips!

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.

Why, Falcom? Why you do this??

Mercenary Kings. I would say this is an example of a good game that should have been great. It's a side-scrolling run-and-gun with art and animation by respected pixel artist Paul Robertson (who seems to do a lot of work with Tribute; e.g., Wizorb). You pick a character and then go on missions to eliminate the bad guys that involve a lot of running, jumping, and shooting.

But there's more to it and that's where the game over-complicates things. First, there's a resource-gathering element (bleh...), so that you can build different kinds of guns, knives, mods to boost your character, or just decorate your camp. The game makes a big deal out of your ability to create zillions of guns through different combinations of receiver, barrel, magazine, etc. Many of the guns seem kind of fun but I would have been totally fine just having to grind some cash if I wanted to buy a particular one. I ended up using machine guns as much as I could because I liked being able to shoot a lot of bullets before having to deal with the reload mechanic.

Most of the missions require you to go around the same level over and over again, but with objectives like "kill this many guys", "gather this many things", or "kill everyone in a particular zone". You're basically doing the same thing repeatedly to pad the length of the game.

The boss battles can be annoying because there's a time factor involved. The bosses like to hang out in a specific spot for a few minutes at a time. If you don't kill them within those few minutes, the boss will pick up and teleport to another spot, and then you have to trudge across the level just to continue the fight (mercifully, their health doesn't regenerate).

I've read that the game has some similar mechanics to stuff like the Monster Hunter series, which I haven't played, so it's possible that the creators were trying to do a sort of Contra/Metal Slug meets Monster Hunter/Borderlands mash-up, but I don't think the combination does the game any favors. It's fine when you're just running and shooting stuff, but a lot of the other elements cause it to feel like game is being stretched out and lacking in the sort of unique set-pieces that tend to distinguish the best run-and-gun games. My favorite battles in Mercenary Kings were when I would meet the Baron's cute eye-patched yapper dog, who comes at you in a succession of bigger and deadlier dog-shaped tanks, but by the time I finished, I was kind of weary of fighting the dog seven or eight times in the same three tanks.

Robertson's art is quite lovely. It's not as lavish as the old Nazca-produced games, but it's a cut above most pixel art today, with a more distinct style. I just wish they had gone with a more focused game design so he could have really gone nuts with more unique enemies and levels.

Next game down - this time Resistance: Burning Skies, also on the Vita. Interestingly this one was made by Nihilistic Software whose biggest games must have been the okay-ish Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption and the cancelled StarCraft: Ghost.

So, as always this one is in many regards a big step down from Killzone. Resistance never could complete with Killzone in terms of overall quality or production value and isn't nearly as recognisable as a franchise. But: I honestly have a soft spot for the Resistance series, especially the original game on PS3. The thing is: it's simply mechanically more interesting and fun to me than Killzone (or most other modern shooters for that matter).

Burning Skies is some sort of pre-sequel spin-off - I think it's set between Resistance 1 and 2 and it shows the Chimera's alien invasion of the USA. Here you play as Riley, a fireman who encounters some Chimera during a big fire and then joins the fight as he's trying to find his family. It's very silly and campy and has strong War of the Worlds vibes. I guess it put many reviewers off here but seriously, it's just what it is and I don't mind at all. It's fun! And I kinda just love this premise of 40s/50s military fighting aliens and archaic radio programs informing the population about how the fight is going.

Anyway, the game doesn't look too great, it's technically mediocre with glitchy animations and whatnot and all in all it's a pretty typical last gen shooter whose design philosophy hasn't advanced a bit since the original Resistance that had been released entire six years earlier. The levels are very simple and linear - it's just tunnels and small arenas. Buuuut like in Resistance 1 the game's entire point is the guns! There's eight guns here plus a fire axe and two types of grenades and like in earlier Resistance games they differ (for the most part) immensely from each other. There's the Bullseye rifle whose bullets will even fly around corners if you've tagged an enemy or the Auger rifle which can shoot through solid objects or the Swarm rocket launcher which can lock onto four enemies at once or the Hunter rifle which can also spawn a little drone - and you can carry all guns at once! AND the game pauses while the weapon wheel is on-screen. The result is a shooter where you constantly keep changing your guns, choosing the right one for the current situation. It's something that few of such "modern" shooters do and it's what I love Resistance for. And while the enemies aren't too original (and especially the new ones are kinda weird) their different types give you ample reason to keep switching guns.

And personally I love how the devs handled the touch screen here. Each gun's secondary fire uses the touch screen somehow. Tagging enemies or firing a grenade from the grenade launcher is done by tapping in the corresponding spot on the screen. You load the shotgun's secondary firing mode - an explosive crossbow - by pulling your finger down the screen. If you wanna throw a hand grenade you drag and drop the grenade icon onto the target location. Also objects like doors are interacted with by tapping on them. I literally had no concerns with how that works here. It was often more precise than how such things usually work on controller and it made the game feel different from other shooters. Oh yeah, and there's a weapon customisation system here that allows you to install up to two mods in each gun at a time - most of these don't have much of an impact but it's still a nice touch.

Anyway, the game isn't groundbreaking in any way (especially since what it does best was carried over from earlier Resistance games) but I simply enjoyed it. The reviews are pretty bad (around 60 on average) but after I read some of those I'm under the impression that the reviewers often didn't get how essential it is to KEEP CHANGING GUNS. Some complained about difficult sections which were actually very easy if you just pick the right tool - an in my book that's exactly what makes this a pretty fun and satisfying shooter.

Also: this would have been one of the easiest and quickest platinum trophies but sadly one of the trophies require to play a single multiplayer match which does not work anymore. :(

Rune Classic, Aug 20 (GOG)-I'm not sure what I was expecting but this just wasn't good. I think I was expecting maybe a poor man's God of War but it didn't come close to reaching those lofty heights. To the game's credit it went from terrible in the first hour or two to boring but tolerable afterwards. In a game where combat is the only draw the combat was awful. I found the best strategy to be rushing through levels avoiding fights if at all possible. The plot was meh and I killed so many people I think I brought about the end of the world more than stopped it. Also, why was the entire first half of the game spent in hell?

Full List

Assemble With Care

A charming VN where the interactive part is that you're a repair woman and you... repair things! ^_^ Won't say much, because the charm of a VN is to discover the story by yourself, but expect 1-2h of gameplay. Whic was actually a good lenght. A nice pause between two "serious" games (I'm in far Cry Primal right now), a slow pace. Beautifully hand drawn visuals, nice voiceover, very nice soudtrack. Charming!

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

Horizon: Zero Dawn:


I'm not sure if it matters on here which platform is being used, but I've only finished some games on the PS4 lately. That said, I would have to say that my favorite one that I completed this year has to be Horizon: Zero Dawn.

I started playing this back in January. I think it is such an excellent piece of work! The graphics are gorgeous. The story continues to evolve as you play the game. Wonderfully written IMO. The gameplay itself is excellent. I enjoy the character development. The skill tree is a very nice touch that really adds to the gaming experience overall. You can play a variety of different styles. I personally enjoyed using stealth and eliminating enemies while unseen.

I can't recommend this game strongly enough. I loved it!