Ori and the will of the wisp
good game :)

Minit (2018) (Linux)

That's something new. I really appreciate a new idea of gameplay. Minit gives you 60 seconds before you die, no matter what. However all achievements, abilities and items are kept, which creates unique mechanics of dozens of small runs (~125 in my case). Interesting concept with some funny moments (as listening to someone, who tells you his story sooo slow that you'll die before it ends).

List of all games completed in 2020.

Shadow Warrior (classic). Of the three classic Build engine games that everyone talks about (Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior), this would be my least favorite (Blood is best, IMO), but it's still pretty cool. It's really just Duke3D with an Asia-Land filter over everything. The weapons aren't particularly creative, but everything feels good to shoot and I like the sword better than the usual melee weapon options in FPSs.

Arx Fatalis

(Arx Libertatis; great community fix, I didn't encounter any bugs)

People call it the spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld 2, but it's often obvious that the young Arkane Studios didn't have the same experience, manpower and budget that Looking Glass had. But still, I see a lot of similarities and overall, they did a good job.

I loved the game despite its flaws (a few balance issues, obscure puzzles, fiddly interface and magic system).
The sound design in general is really great: Droney background music, creepy little sounds, ... it really creates an atmosphere.
The voicings are little cheesy - but it adds to the charm.

Too bad they never made a successor! I have most of their newer games (yet to play!) (Dark Messiah, Dishonored series, Prey) - but for some reason I wanted to start with 'the first game'.

So what now? Dishonored or Prey?

Entry 13: Unreal 2 (Gog version-Win10, 64 Bit)

A different styled entry into a known series....in Unreal 2 you play the equivalent of a space cop investigating a mystery which leads to collecting pieces of a mysterious McGuffin(McMuffin) to prevent the baddies from getting it.

Pros

It has some interesting levels(like the first planet after the tutorial planet), some somewhat decent NPC ship mates(from which you can pick dialog choices on rare occasion while onboard your ship, and on some missions), some silly moments at times, and some funny easter eggs hidden here and there. You also get some somewhat decent weapons.

Cons-Nitpicks

Didn't like the ending much(slightly downer, imo), the ending "wrap up level" seemed a bit rushed(in terms of playing through it), some of the weapons(due to getting them over time) were only available for a limited amount of play time.

(Also there is a cliched final enemy/reveal you will see coming from a few missions beforehand)

Misc

On at least my system the game(if windowed) WILL hang if one doesn't allow a few moment for it to load the animated menu. If this happens, I advise letting it load fully BEFORE clicking the window.

Overall score: 7/10

A good enough scifi shooter game with some decent moments here and there.

(Score is in part because I have been playing this one on and off for years and have grown attached to some dialog, characters, etc)

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(Main List of mine is in Post 21 of this thread)

Ghost of Tsushima on hardest difficulty. Loved every pixel of that game, but I strongly suggest to play with Japanese voiceovers since English are not even close to the point of game seriousness and drama.

Link's awakening (Switch): this is how I like my Zelda games, cute and cuddly. And not open world.

First and foremost, thank you again Doc0075 for Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth.
I got this game from your giveaway back in March.

A very beautiful game revolved around the building of a glorious cathedral. The gripping story of betrayal, revenge, and love.
If someone had said to me, “Here is a game with a story about the building of a cathedral 1000 years ago in England” I probably would have fallen asleep before the end of their sentence. But Follett and Daedalic did an amazing job of crafting a historical fiction story around it that will keep you engaged until the very end.
This game is like Telltale's games where 90% of your choices don't matter to the story progression. But your choices do affect whether or not you get certain achievements.
I cannot say that this game will be for everyone, but if you're curious about Ken Follett's world-bestseller, ‘The Pillars of the Earth’, playing this game is better than reading the book. The book is full of misogyny, violence, accusations of witchcraft and, yes, rape, especially disturbing and graphic rape.

DOOM 64

The 25 main campaign levels, the 6 lost levels, and 3 secret levels, that is. I didn't bother finishing the four FUN levels, because to me they were the opposite of what the name suggests, and I also quit the "super secret" Hectic level that just seemed to amount to a series of player trolling trial and error events. Plus, I kind of cheated on the final boss level as detailed below.

In general I enjoyed the game quite a bit because I also enjoy DOOM and DOOM II, and this was very similar but with completely new levels and some new features, I believe, regarding how the environment could be transformed, and a new weapon (Unmaker) that didn't make it into the predecessors on PC. There wasn't much in the way of music, but good atmosphere sounds. The graphics were a little different from the PC version and weapon animations lacked hands, but it still felt pretty good and familiar enough to me, so that I could actually imagine to consider it part 3 of an old school DOOM trilogy, now that it's available on PC as well.

What I didn't like so much - apart from homing missile traps - was that the level design was often labyrinthine and confusing - press a switch here, run back and find out what it opened at the other end of the map - resulting in me wasting a lot of time on searching the whole level for the next step that would let me continue. And there are some very obscure puzzles that are not really consistent with how the game usually works; I had to check a walkthrough a few times, and I was inclined to dub the game "DOOM - The Point-and-Click Adventure Edition". ;P The general structure was still pretty predictable though - there's symmetry everwhere, and if the left hallway has two opponents of one kind, you can be sure the very same number and type can be found in the right hallway as well, plus you always know if you go here or press that, it will most definitely trigger a "surprising" monster spawn event.

I guess my biggest pet peeve though was the final boss level. First it reduces your ammo with hordes of spawning monsters, then the boss can shoot infinite amounts of homing missiles at you that will follow you around corners and are really difficult to dodge. Now, I played on difficulty 2 of 4 and came into the level well equipped, and maybe I just suck at this, but this was a huge difficulty spike for me and no fun at all. But the most ridiculous thing about it is that this level becomes trivial to beat if you collect three demon keys during the campaign, because not only will they reduce the monster spawning, they also upgrade the Unmaker in such a way that the boss hardly gets a chance to fire her homing missile because the laser now stuns her, too. And these three demon keys are only to be found in three secret levels, of which I discovered not a single one in my regular playthrough. To find them all, you'd need to know exactly in which levels to look for them and where and how to activate them. So these are very prominent items in the game that are meant to reward thorough players, but I doubt the average player would even have a chance of finding them, and without them, you are punished with an extremely difficult boss battle . Well, YMMV, some may actually like that it's hard, but I thought it was bullshit and less fun than the rest of the game. So, seeing that the game - in addition to the classic save/quicksave system - also allows you to type in passwords for specific levels, I just used a password that allowed me to play the level as if I had found all three demon keys, and that's that.

King's Bounty - The Legend

First started it about 18 months ago, and stopped at the "Upper Hadar" bug. Now that it has been patched, just completed a full playthrough. Very enjoyable

Some have complained about having to "keep running all the way back" to replace lost troops, but there are a couple of workarounds, for me at least.
1) Use the local recruiting places. There is nothing to say you have to run all the way through with human troops. In some cases a mix and match is more effective.
2) As you progress there are several long distance travel methods that become available,
3) Sit back and smell the flowers. I found the sharp, detailed graphics and easy on the ear soundtrack to make most journeys enjoyable.

I have seen better story writing, but it did the job with some humour. The combat was enjoyable and had enough options available to not become boring.

I liked the idea that enemies are shown as "weak, match, stronger" etc depeding on the current strength of your army. Also that many can be kited around while you loot what they are guarding to enable you to strengthen your force before going back to an area to clear it in one or maybe two attempts.

I enjoyed the whole experience and am about to start the second in the series "King's Bounty - Crossworlds".

Or just don't lose troops in the first place :) Minimize losses in the actual battle, then keep a slow (and/or slowed) melee enemy alive till you resurrect all you did lose, having units that can resurrect in army as well.

I usually don’t finish a game. I get about half way through and think ‘this is just going to be more of the same’ and start playing something else new and exiting. I’m far from being a completist.

Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries was one of my highlights this year, sure theres some issues but sequel is going to be awesome- Outeworlds was nice too.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (XB1X)

I think this marks the final of the older Yakuza games coming over to Xbox, pretty sure they have no intention of porting any of the other Playstation games, unless maybe they also get remakes. Like the rest of the trilogy I played them all as they came to Game Pass.

It was a good sequel to the trilogy that stats with "0". But damn...that ending. Talk about maybe 4 plot twists too many. Or was it 5? I lost count. It was almost like they were trying to parody some comedy movie with that ending sequence.

You really have to feel for poor Kiryu in this series. No wonder he never smiles. The poor dude can't even walk 20 metres down a street without thugs jumping out to beat on him. But I like the guy, I like how deadpan and business like he is and never whines or bitches. Just does what needs to be done, just like Adam Jensen and 47- my other likeable male lead roles.
Pretty much the same game play as the other games, but no MesuKing from Kiwami. Sad face. I still think "0" was the best of the trilogy with Kiwami 2 next. A solid series overall with mostly good story and fighting mechanics. Looking forward to Like A Dragon in November- Xbox console exclusive apparently (timed), day one launch title for the new console and day one Game Pass. So yeah, I'll be playing it.

Yeah, I wrote something similar here when I bet the game a while back. The ending is like from a terrible soap opera.

I have a PS4 and have been going through the whole series since I beat Yakuza 0 about two years ago, currently I'm playing Yakuza 5. The truth is that Yakuza 0 seems to be the best entry in the entire series and Kiwami 1 and 2 are also better than 3-5 in my opinion, so don't feel too bad about missing out on those.