It seems I have finished a controversial game: A New Beginning – Final Cut

I have both positive and negative criticism to do, the former being about the story and artistic aspect of the game, the latter being mostly about controls.
Since I think Awalterj already said a lot about this game, I'll be brief and talk exclusively about my perception of it, sending you to his post for more details.

First of all, let's address the negatives: I really wonder why Daedalic decided to dump the good old "left click=inspect, right click=interact, move mouse to the edge of the screen to open the inventory" layout for a very imprecise "hold the left mouse button to browse trough the options and release once you have chosen one, while using the right button to open and close the inventory".
In my opinion this is uselessly inconvenient, especially considering that almost all the options that are not labeled as "check" or "use" have no effect until you use a certain object on the specified point... and when you do, the action is automated, making the option useless. Basically, it feels like the alternatives are there just to remind you to open the inventory.
Besides, the game has a tendency to misinterpret commands: I found myself quite often in need to repeat my orders, and several times a single click was considered double (I can assure you it is not my mouse, since I tested it with many other games after this one), forcing me to skip one or more lines of dialogue. Sometimes, the choice "wheel" remained paralized, forcing me to close it and repeat the process... given the substantial lenght (compared to the average game in this genere) of A New Beginning, in the long term those issues have become quite annoying.

In any case, those issues are not enough to subtract the charm form a very well-made adventure game: the unusual theme of choice makes for a mature and interesting narrative that can keep you entertained for a good amount of hours, while pointing the player's attentions on topics that -unfortunately for the world- are still not interesting enough for the unconsciously suicidal public.
Many say that they find the plot quite preachy and not suited for a videogame; personally, I think this is not a very clever statement. I really cannot see why a videogame should be relegated to be a fun diversion and not also used as a media to express a few legitimate concerns about our society... after all, doesn't the direct interaction with the player improve the immersion with what is happening, thus reinforcing the message?

A part from the story in itself (wich, if you don't find "green" political opinions outrageous, is very enjoyable and well-structured depite a very fast -but satisfying- finale), I must praise the art direction: the excellently hand-drawn scenarios and characters improve an already believable setting, while the (German! Avoid the English one like the plague!) professional and capable voice actors manage to perfectly fit each character's role. Also, the soundtrack always evoke the right feeling at the right moment, having nothing to envy in comparion with many bigger budget titles.
My only complaint stays in the animations, especially for what concerns the walking movement: even if (once again due to the budget limits) they are excusable, their choppiness and lack of avriety subtract a bit from the overall experience.
A good word must be spend for the puzzles, too: always logical and fair, they represent a balanced challenge that will allow the narrative to flow while letting the player feel useful. Only a certain puzzle towards the end distrubed my "psychic peace", but I can only commend the rest: they are never frustrating, but also rarely banal.

I perosnally recommend to put aside the prejudices and try this game: it is undoubtedly far from perfect, but seriosuly worth your time and money. Much more than many acclaimed titles, I'd say.

Those are two different things, IMO. There's nothing wrong with discussing relevant topics of politics and society in an artistic medium, the crux lies in how it's done. You can choose sophisticated, clever, subtle approaches, try to make the consumers think. Or you can choose a preachy approach and hammer your message into them, skipping the entire "make them think" part. My personal criticism of this game would be not the topic or the attitude towards it but that it chose the latter approach, and worse, that despite this it doesn't even have a convincing and consistent message to begin with. It starts out as ecofriendly but that turns out to be just a very superficial coat of paint for the confused mess that is the plot. In the end it is not a political game, because if it had any message in the beginning it's undermining it for the sake of a thriller plot. It's like preaching without much thought and conviction behind it and comes across as phony. So even if you are in favor of "green" political opinions, you won't necessarily like the game, because it's actually trivializing the issues it pretends to address and does a disservice to those who fight to raise consciousness and be taken seriously about it.

That being said, I still enjoyed it as an adventure game, just saying that I think the topics itself are not necessarily what people criticize when they complain about the plot or the game's preachiness.

True enough. Maybe I said what I said because, in this particular case, I don't think the game ditched the plot for the thrill's sake *and* because many of the criticism I read (not here on GOG, to be fair) was on the "I want my games to always be mindless enetertainment" line, so I ended up being not very objective in that sentence! :)
I think I know what points in particular you are addressing... that is strictly personal, of course, and I cannot speak freely to avoid spoilers, but I thought that the plot flow mande perfect sense. Yes, I agree that in several moments it feels like the game is indeed hammering a few concepts into the player, but I saw them more as an aware hyperbole aimed to make people think about the implications in those facts rather than a fault in the writing. Those moments may sound exaggeraed, but I think that was precisely the point: in the end, none of the (three, imo) parts involved is positively depicted... niether the "common person", nor the ambientalist or the irresponsible businessman. Often, I thought characters and situations were willfully and almost satirically caricaturized.

I see, and I can relate to your opposition to such statements. I mean, "I want my games to be like this and not like that" is fine, but "all games have to be mindless entertainment, because that's what I like and therefor this game is bad" is not a valid criticism. :)

Good point. It's been a while since I played the game and I hardly remember any details, so I can't judge how convincing this interpretation is, but it sounds possible. Maybe the game's intent is just mistaken for something different than it is, then? E.g. environmental propaganda, when it's really more of a social panorama?

Bomb the Monsters!
Google Store claims that the game is easy to learn but hard to master. This is completely untrue as it took me exactly 2 hours and 20 minutes to get through the 60 levels of the game (55 of them with medal award). So in fact the came is obviously easy to learn and easy to master.

Besides that you can clearly see that the game was designed for touch screens and ported to the PC afterwards. There are several small control issues (for example when you try to scroll the level screen or the archievments or sometimes when you try to place the bombs).

Was it fun to play anyway? Yes it was, because the bomb physics work surprisingly well and there are several different solutions for each level. And let's be honest: How could it not be fun to bomb monsters?

Thank you again to astand, who gifted me the game!

Complete list of finished games in 2014

Slave Zero (22nd september 8pm)

Where do I start. the beginning is fun. 60 to 90% though the game it gets hard and the last 10% is easy (because you have a weapon that kills everything). However at the end of the game there are bugs in the (apocalypse a) level. There are places where you shouldn't shoot (opr the game will crash), shouldn't (you will get stuck) or save (loading save equals instant death). There is a story and there are some good moments but those bugs kind of got to me at the end.

Luxor 2 HD.

Might not finish this one. I'm marking as finished. Am seeing mixed reports on how long I have left. Some people are saying only 4 levels, some are saying over 20 remain. I'm on level 13 and I started getting bored around level 4. Not bad if you like bejeweled, but instead of clicking matches you have to aim and shoot them. I prefer the bejeweled clones. This whole game is essentially on a timer and I was looking for more of a relaxed game.

The worst part about this game is the advertised 88 levels... I haven't kept count, but many of the levels use the same art as previously played levels. I've seen some levels 4 or 5 times now in playing through the standard adventure mode.

Played this as a way to keep my mind fresh in between real world tasks. Wanted something light and puzzly. Too boring, too monotonous, and too difficult in the later levels. Even after drudging through far too many levels just for the sake of completing, I'm giving up. YMMV.

Remember Me

I quite enjoyed it. The vision for the setting, the art design and the music were spectacular, I also liked the character design, cinematics and English voiceovers, and I found the combat system fun, with its customizable combos and the small variety of special moves for certain situations. I chose normal diffculty and it was rather easy, but then again I don't really mind if the challenges are entertaining instead of frustrating and don't get into the way of story progression. Combat has been criticized as repetitive, but it wasn't an issue for me, in fact I was always looking forward to the next battles. The platforming doesn't really deserve its name, which has been criticized too, but it wasn't as tedious to me as it was to other reviewers, and I expected it to be a lot worse. The story was a mixed bag of cool and not entirely convincing ideas, so the game felt a bit like Luc Besson remixing Mirror's Edge*, to borrow a clichéd comparison (with all the good and the bad that this entails). In any case, despite being a little simplistic in the gameplay department, it was an entertaining and refreshing game and I'm glad I bought and played it despite the average ratings, it was definitely worth the money I paid for it.

The things that I personally disliked about the game design is that it's often a one-way street, shutting doors behind you and preventing you to go back, and that's particularly annoying when there's only one automatic savegame combined with checkpoints, so you're always at risk to pass a point of no return and miss stuff if you're not careful. Also, if you find a collectible and die before the next autosave, you have to repeat the search for the collectible, as it's not stored. But although these things are pet peeves of mine, a completionist who is fond of free exploration, they were only very minor issues in my playthrough as the checkpoints are plenty and the collectibles easy to spot and reach most of the time. Oh, and sometimes in combat I wished for better camera control, like a driving camera that's always behind the main character, or at least a lock on feature to keep targetting the same enemies; instead you always have to steer the camera in addition to fighting, which can be bothersome (especially when playing with a controller) since you're always dodging and dancing around your opponents, constantly changing direction. Wasn't that much of an issue either though, since combat was so easy and forgiving most of the time.


* EDIT: After watching Luc Besson's most recent movie Lucy, I have to revise this statement. Remember Me had a much more interesting story and much better writing, despite any of its flaws, so I feel the comparison does Remember Me's writers injustice. The story is also better than the one of Mirror's Edge, I'd say.

Hatoful Boyfriend

This game is a bit hard to talk about without spoilers, but it's some kind of work of insane genius and you should play it if you have any interest in visual novels.

You might be aware of Hatoful Boyfriend as the "pigeon dating sim." It's a visual novel/dating sim, except that you're a deranged (human) "hunter/gather" who lives in a cave and all the romance options are talking birds. So, wacky comedy, yes? Except, not really. It starts off as a parody, and one of the story lines, San, plays out pretty much that way. But as you keep playing, the game deepens. The romance options are still birds, but that sort of fades into the background as you explore surprisingly touching stories. And then ... well, I don't want to spoil stuff, but one of the story lines you unlock turns into a horror story, and ends in one of the most genuinely unsettling scenes I've recently witnessed in a video game. And once you've finished all the character paths, there's a final episode where things go completely of the rails ...

You should seriously consider this game, is what I'm saying.

Strange, I'm playing the game right now (just started Chapter 7) and haven't noticed those specific issues. I have noticed the action labels occasinally being in Russian instead of my chosen English. Which is just plain weird.

Plotwise, I've been enjoying it but there have been at least a couple plotholes with Fay suddenly being aware of facts that she was ignorant of just moments or scenes before.

More than a decade after I first played the game, and after countless attempts, I have done it. I have finally beat Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. Okay, so that may not sound like much of an achievement, but I usually get too annoyed with the difficulty of the game when I get near the end that I quit and move on. This time, though, despite getting annoyed many times, I did it. And it was fun.

Still, there are some things about the game that annoy me quite a bit. For one thing, I had a serious problem with commands not registering. In a game that often requires split second timing, this was frustrating. It was especially bad with double clicks. Many times, they simply wouldn't register, and ruined a plan that required my commando to run. Other times, the first click in a double click would send my commando running, so when I hit the second click, he started walking. Most of the times I quit the game to keep from smashing something were due to double clicking issues. Also, many of the "rules" regarding which commando can do what are odd. Like, why are the Green Beret and the Spy the only two commandos who can carry bodies? Why is the Driver the only commando capable of driving any vehicle (this would make more sense if he was the only one who could drive tanks and the like, but requiring him for a simple truck is ridiculous)? And why is the Diver the only commando capable of swimming?

I understand, of course, that these arbitrary limitations increase the challenge of the game, but I felt Commandos 2, which had far fewer limitations on characters, was just as challenging without feeling unfair.

But all in all, it's a fun game.

Just finished Heavy Bullets - shit, that was pretty intense. Not the best FPS roguelike, but it's certainly a good one.

Almost done shovel knight now about 80% done :)

Shadowgrounds Survivor

Performance is bad, I had to lower the graphic settings a bit.
Gameplay, story and level design is worse than in the first part of the series.
The character classes was a good idea badly implemented.
I unlocked a load of stuff in the playthrough, tested one survival level, restarted the game with the electric gun, monochrome-mode, 100 skillpoints and a higher difficulty setting but it was still "meh" and I deleted it.

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