Strange Horticulture
https://www.gog.com/en/game/strange_horticulture

This is another one where I completely disagree with the stated genres - adventure, simulation, puzzle. I would classify this game as visual novel / adventure.

While you have an inventory of plants, letters, and other things that you obtain, often these are used to either complete a task or make a choice that determines the outcome. Ultimately it's these choices that you make that determine the outcome of things. Do I give the guy that absolutely everyone hates Butterdale that will clear his rash or Meakdew that will make it worse?

The game really is Lovecraftian and does a better job at conveying this sort of atmosphere than the games where you actively fight the unspeakable horrors.

Also my cat really enjoyed watching me play this one, much more so than every other game that he's watched me played.

5/5

Genghis Khan II (PC CDROM)

Been playing this some evenings for a while now. Finally conquered the known world. Best of the old Koei strategy games that I've played by a long shot. Last time I played it was in 1996 using Win 95 that I would reboot into Dos 7 using a virtual boot disc. I've still got that config and autoexec configuration on a Win98/CRT monitor PC to this day! But this time I decided to take the easy way and just played it with DOSBOX.

After a period of relearning the games oddities, I really got back into it. It is still an excellent strategy game that initially feels a bit easy, but as you expand to the Middle East, and you run out of reliable Generals and daughters to marry off to make reliable Generals...and Genghis himself gets old and slow (the game takes this into account!)- things start getting harder. The newer Generals begin to betray you and turn independent, the Chinese start to rebel if you let them (I could hear the City Wok guy from South Park yelling Fuck You Mongorrian!)...suddenly you find yourself wishing Genghis would have a little accident so you can replace him with one of his sons. The game really simulates the difficulty of holding an empire together as it gets too large.

The game essentially plays like a precursor to the Total War games. Except, instead of real time tactical battles, here you battle in small tactical turn-based battles on a grid. In the Total War series I always find that all of my battles end up in a big mosh pit in the middle of the map and I'm just there wondering what the hell is even going on. I like the Genghis Khan way better.

The game still holds up well for a title from 1993. For some reason the Steam version that you can still buy is only in Japanese despite there being a fine English translation back in the 90's- I got it on an old SSI War Game compilation CD- which had non-SSI games on it as well.

X-Men Legends. I guess I was feeling nostalgic for Marvel games, so I played this again for the first time in about 20 years. It's still a pretty good game, overall. The action moves reasonably well, but I've never been entirely satisfied with how the game essentially imagines an X-Men game as a Diablo-like overhead dungeon crawler, just with the twist that you control up to four characters that you can switch among. The game gets monotonous as it goes on, especially in the longer levels.

I also come at this from the perspective of a comics fan, so I can't help nitpicking that it doesn't quite capture the X-Men experience in its gameplay. Superheroes simply don't beat up trash mobs and loot the carcasses for money and special randomly generated items that they might equip for stat boosts. They're actually pretty static and it's more about them using their powers in creative ways depending on shifting circumstances - Freedom Force is much better at nailing this vibe while still allowing for some character growth.

Since I favor the older stories, I mostly ignored relatively new characters like Gambit and good guy White Queen. Usually my party had Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean, and maybe Nightcrawler, Colossus, or Iceman. I used Wolverine most in the early game because he's a hard hitter and his health regeneration is nice, switching to Cyclops for distance attacks, but I found around the midpoint that Jean turns into a total death machine who hits even harder thanks to adding mental power to her standard attacks and her telekinesis and mindwave powers are fantastic at crowd control. It's only against the more powerful late-game Sentinels that she struggled.

They story isn't anything amazing but it's adequate, basically using a classic X-Men template of "young new mutant discovered, X-Men recruit her and she ends up becoming part of the team as they battle evil mutants and bigots." Magma is the choice this time, which is an interesting cut as it's usually someone like Kitty Pryde or Jubilee. Things do get a bit convoluted with the idea of throwing in Shadow King on top of Magneto and the Sentinels.

Visually it's a good-looking game still. I played it upscaled through an Xbox emulator. The problem is that its art design is an uncomfortable mishmash of sources that grind against each other. The mansion is straight out of the movies, with the gleaming subbasement and random students cluttering the halls. The characters in personality are reasonable adaptations of the classic comics (with exceptions like Toad, who's from the movies), but they're all stuck wearing their costumes from the Ultimate X-Men series that was new at the time and those costumes have aged quite poorly. Iceman's wearing a freaking do-rag like he's in a nu-metal band. You can switch to more classic skins by completing the game, but I'm sure as hell not going to replay it now just to have that option. I might move on to the sequel, which I understand has a big modding scene on PC...

The Casting of Frank Stone, Oct 30 (Xbox Game Pass)-Beat this one yesterday. I don't think its as good as Until Dawn but it scratches that same horror Choose Your Own Adventure itch. I liked the general premise of this one with multiple timelines and the haunted film story. For some reason a lot of the narrative felt disjointed like I had missed a scene or a character had died and the game skipped a story beat. But maybe that was just me. The game felt very short and the ending just kinda happened with no real resolution which was disappointing. Until Dawn is the one other game I've played like this and it quite a bit better. This was fun but felt sloppy and rushed.

Full List

Dead Island Riptide (XSX)

I played the Xbox One Definitive version on XSX which doubles the frame rate to 60 fps. It ran flawlessly and looked fine, a decent way to play the game. Riptide is the entry that I was still yet to play. I like this series, it's simple uncomplicated fun with no combo's to remember or complicated mechanics. Just pick up quests and run out there and do them. It's Borderlands done as a slasher instead of a shooter. I enjoy these AA level video games these days a lot.

Riptide consists of two main open maps joined together by a linear story section in-between them. It really feels more like a big standalone expansion for the first game. I spent about 25 hours on it and enjoyed it, but not as much as either of the two numbered entries in the series. Now that I've played all of the Dead Island games I feel like I can finally get around to Dying Light.

I had the marvellous idea to finally beat Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, specifically the emulated PS1 version on PS5.

I haven't played this one since like 2000 and in my memory it was an okay game. Disappointing for a Star Wars action game after Jedi Knight and Shadows of the Empire but still enjoyable.

I was wrong.

This may in fact be the worst game that I have ever finished. It's not just underwhelming by the standards set by the Star Wars games that came before it, it's a barely functional piece of garbage. If it weren't for the Star Wars license you'd think that this was the first game developed by an amateur studio that was just formed in the ruins of the Eastern Bloc.

So, the most obvious thing is that this game has a pretty humble format that seems almost bizarre for a game that was supposed to accompany the biblical event that was the big return of Star Wars. It's this weird quaint thing that's neither third-person nor top-down but something in-between. I could live with it if this format had been used to deliver robust and accessible fun.

It wasn't.

It looks terrible, you can't see shit, the tank controls are abysmal, the collisions are wonky. Whether you're using the lightsaber or ranged weapons, it's virtually impossible to kill a single enemy in this game without taking a random amount of damage. The lightsaber neither hits enemies nor repels blaster shots reliably. The force push does more harm than good since using it exposes you to enemy fire and it has a negligible effect on enemies. Think you can throw enemies to the ground and charge at them with the saber? Forget it. Usually enemies will actually start shooting again before you can even reach them and you will take damage because you can't deflect shots when too close to enemies.

There's also all sorts of ranged weaponry - a variety of blasters, grenades and even a rocket launcher. Aiming them is slow and awkward and the dodge roll moves you by like two inches at 1 mile per hour. Combat simply doesn't work in any shape or form here.

You'd think that the developers would have recognized that their game doesn't work and that they would have at least distributed healing items to even things out a bit. Nah. Healing items are sparse and placed without any rhyme or reason. They didn't even have the sense to place them before bosses or other particularly challenging sections. You're more likely to find them in super secret corners or defended by numerous enemies. You can very well end up in situations where you simply don't have enough health to beat the next section of a level. You can save at any moment, even in the PS1 version, but obviously that won't help if you're low on health before one of the bosses of this game who will deal great damage to you even if you play very well and are lucky.

But there's more to this game. There's also the worst platforming you have ever seen and some terrible puzzle design. The levels are usually also unnecessarily vast and convoluted and painful to navigate. There's also a whole bunch of escort sections. Those are always fun, especially in a broken game, right?

But I had fond memories of one thing in the game: RPG elements! There's multiple choice dialogues and some moral choices. On some levels you find yourself in civilian locations where violence is not the answer. You have to talk to NPCs in order to get items that you need or gain access to certain locations. There's that memorable level in Mos Espa that plays almost like an RPG. Weird choice for a movie tie-in but that part has to be good, right?

For the love of...

A few weeks ago I reviewed Blood Omen here and I mentioned how it's about the most nihilistic game I have ever played. Scratch that. It's this one. Walking around as Jedi, the embodiment of virtue, you can not only be a prick in dialogue, you can slaughter everyone. And I mean everyone (well, except story characters). The Gungan guard isn't letting you pass? Cut him into pieces. A poor kid in the slave quarter of Mos Espa has called you smelly? End his misery right there! It's like George Lucas played this game and that's what gave him the idea to make Anakin slaughter all those Tusken families and make princess Amidalla just go "there, there" in Episode II.

This game is just a grotesque pile of steaming shit.

Oh yeah, and the crazy thing is that the PS1 version came out several months after the PC version, so you'd think that they would have addressed some of the simpler jarring issues like the lack of healing items but no, apparently this version is only even more difficult. It seems that one of the bosses deflects bullets that he didn't deflect in the PC version. And I'm almost certain that in the PC version you could cycle through different perspectives, which would have helped with visibility in numerous sections (though I may be getting things confused with Shadows of the Empire).

And to add insult to injury, this appears to be the only game available on PS4/5 that does not have any trophies, leaving you with nothing to show for it if you make the unfortunate decision of reliving these terrible memories.

Settlers 2 10th anniversary.
well even though i beat Settlers 2 gold before between a huge break the last 2 missions of campaign of the gold game and am still playing the world conquest, i consider the gold game finished already.
I decided to try the 10th anniversary game since it was in a newsletter discount?
Wel not sure but i bought it in april and beat it today.
The game i think treats your soldiers differently with life that regenerates by waiting instead of returning to their hut and their life returns to full like in gold i think.
Well it's very important to go forward on the maps and find gold and upgrade your soldiers to generals 7 life which means they need seven hits.
Took quite a while to beat 35 hours as i was not always having good results against the asians there were some pushbacks until i found out what i had to do to push the back again. Requiered ships in some levels, but in the gold game i managed to beat it without using ships.
You can also evacuate your soldiers by leaving the building empty something that in gold game wasn't possible, but very usefull when trying to reach the gate.
The story is another nothing important your women are gone and you go seek the gates and worlds in the search for the missing women, but then figure out there are no women even in other tribes and find other usefull info.
Anyway it's important to have some good working economy in this game to make everything but i guess most important in end is still swords and shield with beer to get new soldiers and upgrade them with gold.

The 10th mission i had to push through the asians from the east to south mostly but also met the yellow colored opponent which i though they wouldn't attack me since i had like 9 generals in their way on the west. But they decided to attack me and somehow got close to my headquarters a little when i was very close to the gate. Lucky they stopped attacking when i decided to expand my buildings to watchtowers and got generals in them again.
Oh expanding building is also new if you have the space for it. So yes reached the 10th gate and won the game.

Anyway this is my 100 gog game beaten now.
Think the correct number for sega mega drive beaten games would be 230 games which i don't remember every name but i remember the number i played that console for more than a decade.
And some rpg maker game i beat is probably at number 67, which 2 were from gog.
Didn't check all the pc games i've beaten that are on steam or pc in general.
I wonder if anybody beat more games on gog in all the time they are here.
Maybe i will make a thread for that maybe not.

Heh, I just have 36, and at my pace I probably won't live long enough to get to 100.
... which is really bad when what I currently have tagged as backlog (including the handful of started ones) stands at 81. And there are a bunch more that I'm uncertain I'd care to play.

The Darkness (XSX)

Xbox 360 version played on XSX which doesn't give any enhancements other than possibly making performance more stable. The only other option is the PS3 version since it never got a PC port- something that Nightdive are currently working on though.

It's good that Nightdive are doing a remaster as the game truly deserves it- it's one of the best shooters of its era. You are a gangster hitman possessed by a dark entity. The story is a typical Hollywood style gritty revenge story. The special abilities that The Darkness gives you are some of the most badass in gaming, and fun to use- though maybe a bit overpowered. The creeping dark ability is so much fun to use especially- creeping through levels stealth killing enemies remotely. It sort of reminds me of the wire guided missiles from Descent 2.

I have the sequel on PC, so I'm going to play that soon.

Enjoy the sequel as I really liked it. It is very brutal and really enjoyable. Good to know that the first one might appear one day on PC.

Diablo
https://www.gog.com/en/game/diablo

I decided to skip the included Hellfire. As for Beelzebub, I decided to pass on that just because the default resolution made the GUI too small and while I could lower the resolution in game apparently, that sort of defeats the main reason I would even use it.

I always had a hard time thinking of this game as an RPG. It does feel far more like a roguelike/lite (Sorry, I'm not entirely sure about the difference) even though the game lacks perma death.... which has always been the worst feature (my opinion) of the whole rogue/like/lite/whatever genre. Not having perma death isn't a terrible thing.

My one complaint about Diablo is that it really could have used some algorithm that took into account what character you're playing if in single-player. The game really was determined to give me melee weapons even though the warrior is the one character that I absolutely will never play. I'm just not into chasing around enemies that can teleport about plus those things that spew acid at you. So here I am having to restart as a new game (with the same character) all because the game was just that determined to not give me equipment (either as drops or at the blacksmith) that I actually wanted.

That is true. I remember a side quest for the blacksmith, who said something about "I'll make something good for you, upon your return", and I was eagerly waiting, because I had my current bow (rogue) for a long time. And he made for me a sword!! In other action-RPGs, the class of the player is taken into account.

The Darkness II (Steam)

Something different for a change- a 360 era PC port that runs on modern hardware almost like it was designed to. The game ran flawlessly at 4K and 120fps and required no tinkering or fixes at all. So, obviously that means the sequel was much better to play compared to the 720p 30 fps of the Xbox 360 first game.

The gunplay was much improved over the first game- and not just because of better performance. In the second game the guns are stronger, and the Darkness abilities are toned down. This means that I played it more like an actual shooter compared to the first game- which had stronger Darkness powers and weaker gunplay. For example, Creeping Dark is gone altogether (admittedly it was overpowered!).

The levels were also regular linear shooter levels compared to the Subway hub system of the first game, which also had side missions to do. Doesn't matter though, they are both excellent games and possibly even now my favorite shooters of their time. I probably prefer The Darkness II overall because it just plays better...at least until Nightdive bring out the remastered version of the first game anyway.

I finished Kane and Lynch: Dead Men. Very good action game with two very interesting characters (though you only play as Kane). About 10 h in total, 16 chapters. My only problem at the game is that, even though it's got two endings (depending on a choice you make at the end of Ch. 15), neither ending is good! And not only that, but also Lynch himself tells Kane, in both options, that he should have chosen the other one!

Nevertheless, I would like to thank again kultpcgames, for gifting the game to me, in a way “forcing” me to buy the second game and play them earlier (than the time they would be played).