The Last Door Season 2. A bit more puzzle-heavy than the first (nothing unfair), but equally atmospheric. My only complaint is that there was a bit of a plot thread in one chapter (Eilis Mor) that wasn't quite tied up IMO, but it's a small quibble. Highly recommended.

Freak Out (PS2)

Also known as Stretch Panic in the US, this is a game about a girl who lives with her 12 older sisters, who are all obsessed with the way they look, whilst you our happy with your Scarf. But one day a bunch of demons are attracted to their vanity and possess each and every one of them, turning them into monsters, a demon attempts to possess you but instead possesses your scarf, giving it the ability to stretch any object. With this new ability you head into the demon realm in order to free your sisters.

This game is essentially similar to Alien Soldier in the sense that it's mostly boss fights, you can gain 'Points' by going to certain levels and defeating the grunt enemies (Women who have had a certain part of their body grown to a ridiculous size) that can be used to access the boss levels and exorcise the demons. You deal damage by grabbing part of an enemy and stretching it then releasing it, dealing more damage by stretching certain areas. The bosses are varied from a giant Mr Potato Head to an monster that will 1 hit you if you look at it. The gameplay gets some getting use to, the scarf can be kind of fiddly especially when trying to grab a small area of one boss. The only bad thing is how short it is, it took less than 2 hours for me to playthrough it, and had I not paid £2 for it would have thought it was a rip off. It's a good experience and a good game, but I'd only recommend getting it if you can get it cheap.

Oh boy, sure hope I'll be able to say that this year at least. Started in 2010 (or at least that's when the previous saves are from, it is possible that I had started it even earlier, abandoned and then picked back up then), only got back to it rather briefly last year, and now been trying to continue again. Not going anywhere though, a couple of things really not playing well with my perfectionism.

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter (4th may 10:55am)

wow that is a hard fun game. Most of the time you ill be thrown into a room with 100s of deadly enemies and you try not to die. too me two months to beat also but the final boss is easy

The second encounter is harder.
I can't get past the first SS3: BFE level that introduces giant hordes of enemies. xD

SquareCells
As a casual puzzler, I welcome anything that makes me use a little bit of brain power. From the developer of the Hexcells series (easily my favorite puzzle series - think of Minesweeper but better) comes SquareCells. It is very similar to Hexcells with the exception that your units are composed of squares. You will have similar column, row, group/broken group and adjacent group hints that propel you through the 36 puzzles. The game will last about 5-8 hours depending how strong of a puzzle solver you are.

Compared to Hexcells Infinite, you no longer have the ability to infinitely generate puzzles, so 36 is all you will get. The complexity is not quite on the same level either, but the last world of SC was fairly difficult for me, taking about 30-40 min per puzzle. Although the hints are similar, the strategies for solving some of the sections are rather new. One consistent aspect is that you will never have to guess on a unit, nor will you be left with any 50/50 choices like in Fine Sweeper or other Minesweeper clones.

For fans of the Hexcells series that want a little bit of style change, I definitely recommend getting this game. For anyone else, I heavily suggest playing Hexcells Infinite first.

Good
- 7/10

<span class="bold">The Walking Dead: Season 2</span>

I just finished the second season of The Walking Dead for a second time. Since I played the first game a lot, like 80h, and recently finished Tales From the Borderlands, I've decided to play it again.
This time I used a Steam controller, which in my opinion, works great for any recent Telltale Games title. However, since I have this on GOG, I couldn't play it without adding it to my Steam library as a non-Steam game, which sucks, I really like the Steam controller, but I would love to see it without Steam when I'm on a different platform.
The story is great, like any recent game from Telltale Games, with more choices in this one, and an amazing soundtrack as always.

Complete list of games finished in 2016.

Huge fan of the Hexcells series here. I was very disappointed when I learned that Squarecells was Steam-only. The strangest thing is that this game isn't even mentioned in Matthew Brown's webpage... :\

Please tell me these platforming bits only in the first 3 levels. Apart from that 2nd is easier (so far)

I remember having some trouble with the later levels.
I think there was more platforming.
Not all THAT much but still. :l

That is a bit weird. Tbh i only noticed this game because its on sale on Steam atm. I'm such a fan of the Hexcells series but this game came out 5 months ago and I had no clue. Although I still believe Hexcells Infinite is far superior, it was definitely fun getting challenged by new specifically designed puzzles. Hopefully it'll become DRM free someday.

Echo Tokyo: Intro
Echo Tokyo: Intro is a fully voiced visual novel intended for older audiences. Comprised of two stories, Shizume's novel plays out similar to a choose your own adventure providing roughly 6 choices that lead to various endings. Keiji's novel is a linear novel with one true ending.

Compared to other VN's, I definitely enjoyed the voiced narration. Although the chosen actors could probably have been better, their story telling compelled me to continue through the novels. What differs from this game to most other VN's is the fact that the story actually shows a progression in graphical assets (scenery, characters etc.), exactly like a graphical novel. Most VN's tend to re-use a handful of backdrops to progress the story. The artwork is rather bland, just sufficient in getting the point across. A few environments were really well illustrated however.

I definitely would have enjoyed the game more if there were more game options for personal tweaking. The only game options provided are Fullscreen options. No text speed, font size, menu opacity or dedicated saves/loads (only qs/ql) options.

I enjoyed my playthrough of both stories (~30 min total) and feel like it could have been much worse. There aren't that many VN's on Steam anyways, so this is definitely worth a shot.

Good
- 7/10

Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror Remastered

I've had completed the original Broken Sword II several years ago and my score was 7.5 out of 10. It was not a bad game by any measure but a forgettable experience. After playing Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars last year (which imho is one of the best adventures ever made), I have decided to revisit the second game with the Remastered version. As far as the remastering goes, I think they have done a great job. This is how remasters should be, some additional touches without changing the actual game. Firstly, the game looks more beautiful, yet it is not a different game such as Monkey Island remakes. Other additions include introduction of a hint system, a story log and nicely drawn comic book squares of characters every time there is a dialogue -makes the game look and feel better and helps creating some connection with the characters-. One thing I could complain is the fact that every time you move the mouse cursor on an object, all other objects on the screen which you can interact with highlight. This can be both good and bad. It does damage the adventure aspects of the game, but at the same time the second game suffers from some idiotic pixel hunting (or try and exhaust every option) puzzles so highlighting objects feels at times welcome. Btw, I'm not sure if the highlights existed in the original game or not.

As for the game itself, it is a big step back from the first game but can still be considered fairly good. The story is not as interesting and well written as the Shadow of the Templars and dialogues are less hilarious. The graphics are very colorful and aged well. I would recommend this to Broken Sword fans who want more after finishing the first game, but it simply is not a must-play adventure game.

NOTE: The game has one of the best ending songs ever (the only other perfect example I can think of is Portal). So don't miss it!

damien score: 7.5/10

List of all games finished in the last years with best and worst games played in each year

Human Resource Machine

What a ridiculously easy game. Even a two-year-old could easily soar through the game's "challenges". Who comes up with this shit?

I kid, of course. Never in my life have I encountered such a hard game. I'm not going to lie, I would never have gotten past even halfway if I had had to figure out every puzzle on my own. Thus I resorted to using a guide, mostly to see how the end credits were like. The game starts off easy and fun enough, but very soon I didn't even understand what I was suppose to do, let alone do it. I'm telling you: if you can complete the game completely on your own - congratulations, you can now stop playing video games entirely and instead apply for a job at NASA because you more than meet the requirements. It's almost like the entire point of the game is for the devs to be able to boast "look how smart we are, and look how stupid YOU are". Seriously: who comes up with this shit??

I really like World of Goo and Little Inferno (from the same developer), but this was way, way too much for my poor brain. Goes without saying that I didn't have much fun with this one. I guess I should go play Spongebob or Pajama Sam educational games next, they might not be too hard for me :¨¨¨((

For David Gaider writing brilliance, I do love HotU! (NWN Hordes of the Underdark).

For any preferred rogue CHAR, I'd recommend boosting your fortitude and will saves. From thence I went unto finalizing the most sweet Valen Shadowbreath romance.

As diplomatic M!Hawke would say unto Isabela in DA2 chapter 3 : "I awaited you all those years. ... It was worth it."

:-D