Just beat Darksiders Genesis on PS4. I actually bought this one in order to play it with my wife in coop, alas, the local multiplayer is in split screen only (unlike, say, Diablo III) and you can't see shit and things get so chaotic then, that even I had trouble making sense and navigation was quite awkward. So after the first level I continued solo.

It's all in all an okay game. It's basically a Diablo style ARPG spin-off. It's light on the RPG mechanics but in return we get more advanced combat mechanics, platforming and puzzles much like in the main series. Sadly many of those things didn't transition well into an isometric perspective. IMO the melee combat requires too much precision for an isometric game where you get swarmed by dozens of small enemies at a time whereas ranged combat, which plays just like a twin-stick shooter, is too darn easy. And the perspective really also isn't suitable for platforming at all.

That said, the game feels nice. Combat has for the most part as much oomph as in the main series, there's a ton of particles and flashes everywhere and the game delivers some really beautiful sights. And the soundtrack is one of the best I've heard in years. And even though this one's story is a bit bland, dialogue between characters like War, Samael and Vulgrim is just a joy to listen to.

However, the game lacks a ton of polish. There are many minor fuckups in the animations and controls and your character will get stuck in a pose and just not cast an ability or attack. Character movement is glitchy, which can become really frustrating during platforming. And the design of some of the puzzles is utter garbage. I actually looked up YouTube videos for some of those and funnily many players never solved them correctly, they just used glitches and other exploits to reach the reward without actually solving the terrible puzzle.

Finally there's the matter of the story and writing. This is a prequel and I generally don't like those. But this is pretty much the worst kind of prequel: the kind that only answers questions that nobody who played the earlier games even asked and which doesn't really contribute to the main series' story. Also, Genesis introduced the last of the four horsemen, Strife, and I loathe that character. Super laid-back, always wisecracking, not giving a damn about his duty and so on. And visually he's a poor man's Masterchief. And what kind of horseman is "strife" anyway? If they make up new horsemen of the apocalpyse do they really have to use synonyms for ones they already have?

Anyway, all in all I still really enjoyed the game and poured many more hours into it than I had to. I just wish it were more polished and they had made a few different decisions with the writing.

Game#4 - Crusader: No Remorse
(GOG/Win 10...completed 5/13/2021[approx])

In this game you have some buddies, and the buddies get betrayed by your bosses and then you need to join the resistance and get revenge on the bad guys you used to work for....all in a top-down sort of way, with some cheesy cutscenes thrown in for good measure.

Personal nostalgia note: I played this game first with the hub parts and cutscenes cut via the "high seas" long long ago, but never finished it....was nice to finally have a better/complete version.

(spoilers)

Pros

There's some nice music, the cheesy cutscenes are nice(like the news vids via the tv in the hub area's bar), the levels are decent enough & some have optional side routes/secret areas, and most of the actors used for the NPCs(like weasel) are well acted/chosen.

Cons & Misc

The wonky control scheme: i.e. weird keys for actions like jumping and such....this makes it hard to play sometimes(well until one gets the hang of the control scheme or uses a key remapper, that is).

Some levels can be a bit maze like to navigate.

Ended too soon(wish it were longer).

(end spoilers)

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Overall Score: 7.5-8/10
(another nice little "merc saves the world" game, albeit with wonky controls..but I love it, "warts" and all)

Personal note: Thanks go out to Ciemnogrodzianin and his time travel thread for finally giving me the incentive to known this one off my backlog(as well as perhaps more soon to come). :)

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Nix: The Paradox Relic finished earlier today. It's a pretty fun metroidvania and NES homebrew.

Ganbare Super Strikers, May 17 (Itch)-Its an enjoyable tactical soccer RPG. The mechanics are ultimately a little too shallow and the games too repetitive for what it is. It could use some between match training and maybe injuries beyond ingame status effects. Maybe that would have given me a reason to not just play the 7 or 11 best players everytime. The ingame mechanics could use a little tweak as well. Its really close to being something great but it lasts a little too long for the simple game it is.

Full List

The Dig (1995) (Linux)

My second trip to 1995.
Disappointing. The intro and the first scenes are really great and promises a nice, old-school science fiction point&click adventure. Unfortunately a lot of things go wrong here. The story is pompous and naive (ok, it may be interpreted as similar to classic sci-fi from golden sf era), the puzzles are terrible (or I'm just dumb, but this game is unbeatable without a lot of try-and-errors or walkthrough), graphics and cut-scenes are inconsistent. Well, simply I don't like it.

List of all games completed in 2021.

Guacamelee 2. This is basically an extension of the first game in that aside from some more involved moves for the chicken form, it's more of the same thing. Your luchador from the first game comes out of retirement to fight more bad guys and do more crazy platforming challenges. If you weren't crazy about the harder parts of the first game, you might tear your hair out trying to do some of the new stuff here.

The villain of this game felt more like an obstacle to me than the one from the first game. The story isn't very developed, not that that's a big deal. I just like the simple wrestling aspect of these games, although as a wrestling fan I think they could go a tad further with it. Just like the first game, Juan does a piledriver, a suplex, and a splash and that's it. No hurricanranas, no topes? I wouldn't want them to get overcomplicated, but I think they could have done a little bit more.

The graphics and sounds are identical to the original's in my eyes, although I enjoy the art direction of the games, so that's okay.

Chronicon

As an aRPG that's theoretically infinite, the extent to which I've finished the game is playing through all 5 acts as a single class (Templar, Conviction/fire spec), reaching lvl 94 (cap is 100).

I've put in about 50 hours total, but a lot of that is experimentation across multiple classes and specs. Most fans will tell you I have yet to even start the "Real" game, which is End-game, higher difficulty instances, nor have I played co-op, so this review is really just from the standpoint of my first 50 hours and solo leveling. I'd guess I probably have 12-15 hours just on that one character.

Overall, I'd say even just for leveling, this is a very enjoyable "Arpg" where the action is done very, very well, and it has many creative and effective options to mess around with (gear, gems, enchanting, etc.) and levelling systems (skill points & masteries).

Cons:
-While the action part of this Arpg is exceptional, the RPG aspects are pretty thin. The story is almost a hindrance, frankly, even by aRPG standards.
-This is compounded that a few systems aren't well explained - even as an RPG/aRPG vet, it took me a while to figure out that sometimes the info you need is in the very spare quest log, and sometimes (go north!) it was in the scrolling dialogue and if you missed it you should talk to the giver again. At the beginning this isn't a huge deal (other than trying to sort which map a given quest is even on), but particularly in Acts 4 & 5 several of the maps get quite large.
-The abundance of items is great, but as a hoarder, even just hanging on to Legendary and Unique items I spend a lot of time in inventory management, and the cost of unlocking add'l bank slots spikes quickly.

Pros
Really almost everything else. Even as someone who would prefer better story/quests, this is right up there with my favorite aRPGs of all time. There are only 4 classes, but 4 primary specs within each class and infinite options to mix/match those.

On normal difficulty particularly the Berserker and Templar feel borderline invincible (the squishy warlock significantly less so), and yet it's still incredible satisfying even as someone who might've predicted otherwise to watch the screen explode and shake constantly and challenge myself to change how I fight to try to string together longer chains.

Even at regular price ($14?) it's a good value and lots of fun, and while I will probably take a short break, I'm looking forward to leveling other classes the rest of the way through, and chipping away at more end game features. Highly recommended for anyone who doesn't hate the genre, especially while you're waiting for more Slormancer releases.

Dragon Age: Origins

I really enjoyed this one and the banter that the party members have with each other. This game really did not age well graphically, but it was still enjoyable. I only did one complete play through, as a dwarf rouge, so it was fun.

Sniper Elite 3

Over all, I kinda like it, even though I really could not get the Co-op to work reliably, which was part of the reason I had got it in the first place. I had found that the shooting mechanics was the most enjoyable, while the story was so-so.

Far Cry 3

I can kind of understand why most people did not like the fact that Vaas was just a side boss, but it was made clear that Hoyt was the main baddy and that he was the one that was pulling the strings on the island, about mid way through the game. I really enjoyed this one and was definitely a step up from the previous game.

Saints Row IV

As a series that started out as a GTA clone, this series had done a good job of distancing itself from that past, with its wackiness that had define it. Honestly I had enjoyed the controls, and even with a controller, it was easy to shoot. I only once that I had used the mouse and keyboard to get a achievement. Although be warned that a achievement is not achievable due to the fact that they had discontinued the service that you need to use to get it.

Half Life 2, Episode One and Two

Now, as someone that have never played a Half-Life game before, these games were really easy to understand of what was happening and what had transpired in the first game. And I can understand why people want 3 to come out so that the series can be down with. Overall it was a really pleasant experience, although there is a section in the main game that was frustrating to get done with, the one that you have to use the rocket launcher to kill the striders to get pass them.

Star Wars: Republic Commando

To be fair this was my upteenth time beating the game. The reason for replaying it was because I was watching Clone Wars and got the itch to play it.

Secret Files 3, May 19 (GOG)-I had some fun with this. Its not quite as bad as advertised. Just a slightly below average but still serviceable adventure. It seemed to have big gaps in the plot and overall had a feeling of low budget/tight schedule. There's no need to buy it alone but it rounds out the Animation Arts Collection well enough.

Full List

XIII

It's a comic book in video game form. The cell-shaded graphics aged really well and is still a blast to play. Unique visuals, solid FPS mechanic, and a good story. The only complaint I have is the stealth missions. There was too much of it. One or two would've got the job done. Aside from that, I'd recommend it to any FPS fan. Shame that we didn't get a sequel.

Just finished Xcom2 war of chosen

On veteran difficulty.

I did some heavy save scam initially but around 20h into campaign there was just no need. Even in last mission without reloads, only 3 guys got hurt because of bomb. and one guy got shot earlier only to regenerate life in next turn.

Fun game. Like Xcom EW, I dont think I will ever replay it, especially since i played xcom2 vanila 2 years ago.

Also my first game i finished in a year. man. I played way too much stellaris (to which i keep coming back) POE and imperator rome last year and this.
and I have not yet played new patch of Rome.

Previous years:

Games finished in 2009
Games finished in 2010
Games finished in 2012. Incomplete
Games finished in 2013
Games finished in 2014
Games finished in 2015
Games finished in 2016
Games finished in 2017
Games finished in 2018
Games finished in 2019
Games finished in 2020

The newly remastered Samorost. This was the second time I played Samorost but this time instead of Flush Player I needed to force it to run on Proton, which worked 100% fine. A cute little puzzle game that is short but well done.

Yup, these XCom games seem to have some difficulty providing a somewhat consistent difficulty. Or at least one in which the latter third or so of the game doesn't become quite easy.
Xenonauts I'd say is the only one in the genre that doesn't have this problem, or the originals if you actively decide not to use mind-control.

Mods might be another option, such as Long War, which seems to be held in very high regard.

Mass Effect (XSX)

Played the first game from the just released Legendary edition. My previous play through's were the Xbox 360 versions. There's no doubt that this version runs and looks way better. They also adjusted the leveling to a 1-30 scale instead of 1-60, though the rate is still the same apparently. Other than that it feels easier than I remember it- maybe because it controls smoother, or maybe they have made adjustments to balancing some powers.

Other than the above, it's the same game as before- still a decent game in it's own right. I played as an Adept- so specialized in psi use. I've played dedicated renegade and goody goody games before, so this time went with whatever I felt like given each situation- and ended up mostly towards renegade, because it's just so much more fun. Who doesn't enjoy whacking that annoying reporter? Or cutting comms with the council every opportunity you get? Never gets old. This time I went with a bit of alien luvin' with the space lesbian for the romancing option.

The game had one annoying glitch that popped up a couple of times during the game- sometimes the character gets stuck in it's strafing animation and you need to go in and out of combat mode to stop it. It was rare though. Also there was one single game lock up...right before the end of the final boss fight of course, meaning I had to restart the fight. But otherwise it ran perfectly. Looking forward more to the next games when I get to them, since all the DLC is included and The Lair of the Shadow Broker is the only DLC I ever got for parts 2 and 3. So I can at least look forward to some new game play for those.

Should I make new posts each time i update or update a current post to keep things tidy?

Anyway, Just beat Echida Wars DX, it's prequel ミリア戦記 and 海鮮わかさぎ丼. Unfortunately, I can't link these games on GOG.

I'm thinking about tackling SiNiSister, 攻略されちゃうARPG, ロイヤル令嬢漂流記, リョナの島, recettear[ or セイディといにしえの森 next. I got a few other games of similar caliber, but those are the top ones right now. Thoughts?