I enjoyed this game a lot, but trying to grind for pure bladestone killed the difficulty curve, since the only enemy that drops that also drops so many souls. I don't know about later games in the series, but weapon-upgrading in both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls struck me as being kind of a mess.

Blackwell Deception: (2016-09-10)

Not a lot to say about this one. The Blackwell games are all more or less what I consider "ok" time filler games. They're not boring but they're not terribly exciting either. All of the games in the series are more or less the exact same gameplay dynamics with perhaps minor changes or improvements from game to game. The main thing that changes is the characters you meet and the storyline.They have that retro-pixelated look I personally find unappealing but to each their own on that front. I'll stilll play the odd pixelfest from time to time anyway.

I've completed the first 4 of the series now (The Blackwell Bundle) and am now about 1/3 done the Blackwell Epiphany which I suspect I will compete within another play session or two within a few days or so.

PC:
+Touhou 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom (ReimuA 1CC on Normal)

I actually beat this?!

...

Just finished Dreamfall Chapters.

Immediately started a new game as I now know what I'm doing!

:D

<span class="bold">The Blackwell Epiphany</span> (2016-09-12)

This final chapter of the Blackwell story and series of games was very well done and kept me constantly engaged wanting to know where the story was going to take me next. It was very well executed and felt both longer and more entertaining than the original 4 games in the series. While I enjoyed the entire series, I found the first 4 games to lack a central element of the story to draw me in and keep me excited. Blackwell Epiphany however had more characters to discover, explore and interact with, puzzles and problems to solve, and overall much more depth than any of the original 4 games. There was more interaction with Joey being critical to discovering solutions, as well as the ability to control other characters along the way.

As the game progressed, the story gathered depth and increasingly engaged my curiousity rather than feeling like I was just doing things to get to the end. The story as a whole left more of a complete story like a decent movie in my mind and in fact it would probably be entertaining if they were to convert the entire Blackwell game series into a single movie or two. The story and dialogue was much stronger in this game.

This game is definitely the strongest title in the entire series, however only if you include memory of all of the previous games having completed them previously as it is all ultimately one big story even though this final chapter is the more exciting of the series. As such, for anyone considering playing this I would have to recommend that they play all of the Blackwell games each in order before this one even though this one is the most fulfilling. Part of it's strength comes from the earlier character development and knowledge of what happened in the past in the previous games.

All in all, for those who like a good detective adventure game series, the Blackwell games are mostly on the entertaining but average side of things, but Blackwell Epiphany ramps it up to make a much more exciting end to the story as a whole, with a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way, especially at the ending which I totally did not see coming.

[Review also submitted to the GOG review system, but as expected it didn't show up there. It either vanished into "the void", or it may show up later perhaps.]

<span class="bold">My complete list of finished games in 2016</span>

Perfect Dark Zero (Xbox One)

My friends refused to play any further after the first mission, so I found someone on Reddit for co-op. It's a very average game, and the first Perfect Dark is a lot better. It has its moments though, and the story has that great cheesyness to it. The guns are good, and you get to use some gadgets. The graphics aren't too bad either, for its time. It's a nice technological showcase of the Xbox 360's power. All in all, I guess it's worth playing if you're a fan of the first game and want to see more of the story, just don't expect a excellent game.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

I bought it a few weeks ago and instantly became hooked. It took me 33 hours to play through it, talking to every character and doing every sidequest I could get. It has a genuinely interesting storyline, and the voice acting is top notch. The soundtrack is superb as well. The gameplay felt a little clunky at first, but it got better after I got a few skillpoints in the right skills. Guns were also completely useless until the last fourth of the game.

The missions have a lot of variation to them. There were some missions where you had to find clues, gradually getting closer to the objective. And the mission in the Santa Monica hotel.. amazing! Great atmosphere. I've started a second playthrough as a Malkavian, and I'll be playing that every now and then.

What did you think of it? I loved the first game. Bought it a few months back and played through it in one sitting.

Also, nice to see another person reviewing Xbone-games here :)

Soma (PS4)

Let's just say that this game has one of the best stories of this generation, it's just one of those games where you finish the game and you're still thinking about it, not just only about the story but the deeper meaning about it, how would you actually react if you were in the shoes of the protagonist. Few games do that, i mean, you finish The Witcher 3 and you get that sad feeling about a long journey that just ended but this is different, it's more philosophical, it will really make you question about so many things in life.

On the bad side, the performance of the game is questionable, the initial loading is terrible, the framerate can get to 20's during some parts and the game randomly freeze for a few seconds whenever is saving.
The game also suffers from the problems of recent games of the genre, it's a walking simulator with the invincible enemies here and there, just... why? Why can't devs make a simple adventure, no enemies and more (better puzzles) like the old days?

Nonetheless, great game.

Full Throttle. I hadn't played this one in years and it turns out I had forgotten more about it than I thought I had (mainly puzzle stuff). I love this game, of course. I like the story and it has beautiful, crunchy pixel art and animation. I like that personality of the protagonist, a hard-boiled biker dude, informs a lot of the puzzle-solving - aside from looking and speaking, your main options are the general "use object" command and either punching or kicking stuff. It has great music.

On the downside...it has a couple of arcade sections that work about as well as any other arcade sequence that a point-and-click adventure has ever done (hey everyone, Lucasarts did something everyone mocks Sierra for doing!). Thankfully they're not very difficult but it's a case of a reasonable idea that maybe should have been implemented differently. I also find that Full Throttle sometimes indulges in silly adventure game stuff, like hiding the solution to a puzzle just off-screen and no you can't see it because the screen won't scroll unless you walk all the way to the edge. It sometimes doesn't give very good feedback on its puzzles.

frictional games excel at atmosphere and narrative but sadly not gameplay. every game they ever made suffers from the same problem...well you can fight in the first penumbra game but it's pretty bad.

That's why walking simulators become so popular, they don't have to worry about the gameplay part. In the other day i asked a friend:

"Do you know why devs make walking simulators instead of something with more gameplay?"

"No, why?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiAFBR4SMqk

<span class="bold">Olav &amp; the Lute</span> (played on Wine v1.9.18)

Short (and free) point'n'click adventure that I discovered after someone mentioned it in this forum. Unfortunately there doesn't exist a Linux build, but the Windows version worked out of the box and without any fuss on Wine.

It's almost like a modern reimagination of Loom: a broken loom, a robed and hooded protagonist who interacts with the world through music, but first has to learn the tunes/spells from the world... The music is very good, while the graphics' quality and appeal vary somewhat from screen to screen. The game is really short and the experience feels extremely lineal, but I guess that's kind of inevitable. What I liked considerably less is how the main game mechanic is dumbed down with respect to its spiritual predecessor: each time you learn a new tune the game literally tells you what it's for (instead of letting you figure it out by observing its effects on different things, like in Loom). Plus, you're also told (albeit indirectly this time) how to solve the final puzzle, even though IMO it's quite evident what you need to do.

Nonetheless, I would still recommend it to anyone wanting a short and simple adventure.


My list of finished games in 2016

Android:
+Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

I got this game from Amazon for a great while ago. It was one of these apps that remained an iOS exclusive (on the smartphone side of things) for a long time, until some day, the Android version was spawned.

I immediately caught it with my Amazon coins and every while and then, I slowly made a little more progress. The end result is around 89% with all the main story complete along with the unique jumps. Unlike other GTAs, this one tends to break the norm of what we've seen of GTA up until that point. For example, one of your missions is the typical GTA racing mission, but played out radically different. Rather than race and be 1st place, you help another guy race and be 1st place through cheating him.

The top-down-like (not fully top-down!) gameplay makes for some interesting changes: no flying vehicles for starters. Also, nearly all of the vehicles have twitchy controls which make them hard to stabilize. Your main character can run for distances without tiring and can hold a variety of weapons, although GTA IV's limit on ammunition is retained. There are your security cameras which act as the hidden packages (and must be destroyed with a thrown weapon like a grenade or Molotov), rampages, and unique jumps (which are spotted by a distinct billboard that must be crashed through for the jump to count). Driving over people and police chases are all there, except the driving over people part is easier as the speed decrease from doing so is severely diminished, and the police system allows for a gradual escape from the maximum heat level to the lowest while on-chase and without relying on Pay n' Sprays.

The setting is based on GTA IV's Liberty City, but with an entire mainland island cut off and the ground totally flattened for the most part. You play as Huang, a Triad who is visiting Liberty City to avenge his father's death and delivers an artifact sword of utmost importance, but ends up ambushed and almost-killed, and with the sword stolen. The game revolves about him slowly learning everything around him and finding his father's murderer.

I think that should do it justice.

My complete list of grand theft finished games

none so far lol, but have just started Witcher again, then will play W2 and THEN OMG OMG will play W3.

I am guessing only W1 will be completed this year, but these are the 3 games I will be playing for a while :D

EDIT - damn I fibbed, sorry - I completed "The Room" on my ipad. Brilliant safe cracking (sort of) game.

I finished last of the W3 expansions few days ago. Well, the game was installed from release day and now it isn't.
Goodbye dear friend. Now, give me back my 200 hours..