Too bad the sad ending was brought about by what I can only guess was rage-induced stupidity (which is a billion times better than plot-induced stupidity because, hey, it's all right for characters to be flawed.)

A mistake many would make, but paid a high price for it.

Breath of Fire 2 from what I remember had a much better story but probably even a worse random battle rate if i remember correctly.

Broken sword 5: The serpent's curse
This game was developed in two parts, which is obvious due to it's dual nature. The first half feels stretched and slow, its too easy and it feels like a detective story. The second half feels condensed, tighter, but also more challenging and it has the feeling of a treasure hunt.
The graphics are very well made, but the 3d cartoon models stick out like a sore thumb. The music is good, but hardly memorable. The jokes aren't half bad, but some of them overstay their welcome. This looked and sounded like a return to the Broken Sword roots, but I feel it felt short. It isn't the worst in the series, after BS4 how could it be?
The characters were ok for the most part, except inspector Navet, whose character was a single joke stretched for far too much.
Also the villain falls under the category of bad James Bond villains. He has at least two opportunities to kill George and Nico, but leaves them to escape both times.
I think the series was at its best in the first game, became prettier, but shallower in the sequel, went through an awkward phase in the third game, got drunk and beaten up in the fourth game and in the fifth game is trying to turn it's life around.
7/10

Few minutes ago, I have finally finished the Platinum run of Soulcalibur V. It took me little bit over 73 hours and 1440 fights to reach Player Level 99, which was required for the Platinum.

After finishing the Quick Battles, the grind to level 99 was most of the time boring, especially the fights, in which I have run around like a chicken, so I would also move forward in the Trophy which required 87,000 meters on battlefield. Thankfully the PIP function of my TV helped a lot during these fights :P.

Next in line for me is at the moment True Ending run of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory and last 60 years in Grand Campaign of Crusader Kings Complete.

Full list of my finished games is >>>here<<<

Finished all Bioshock games.

Why do Bioshock developers feel the need to give most of Bioshock games a sad ending ?

After all that sacrifice, hard work, heroism, the hero deserves a happy ending.

I somehow got to and finished the "The End" of Super Meat Boy. I suppose that counts as finished. There's still Cotton Alley and several Dark Worlds that remain, but I don't think I've got the strength||patience for that :P

Fallout 2

Generally I liked it quite a bit, and quite often I was quite addicted to it, just wanting to complete one more subquest or level up yet another time before going to sleep... That's certainly a good sign.

I'm also a bit exhausted by the game by now so I don't even want to think about replaying it for now. I do want to play other Fallout games too, probably Fallout Tactics next, then Fallout 3 and New Vegas,

I was a bit miffed by some of the bugs I encountered. Some subquest became unsolvable because one person wouldn't give the correct dialog option to me (this was a known bug in that Fallout 2 version), and near the end I encountered the "too many (quest) items" bug that corrupts maps, making it impossible for me to enter Chinatown in San Fransisco anymore. Luckily I had a save game from just before the problem was triggered so I played again from there. This was the GOG version which to my knowledge includes some unofficial SFall fixes, but not the Killap fixes which apparently would have fixed a lot of things, maybe even this too many items bug?

Things I would have done differently if I had known what I know now:

- Install the Killap's patch before you start playing! I presume it will make the game more troublefree. I read someone say it is a good idea first to play the GOG version without it to get a genuine feeling or something, but I say no, you don't want to face the bugs.

- I started taking the "Educated" perks (all three levels) early on because it sounded very useful in theory, ie. getting extra skill points on every level-up. Later I wished I hadn't wasted perk updates to them because I ended up having so many skill points anyway that I started wasting them on skills I never really use. I wish I had used those three perk updates to some other perks. After all, you get a chance for a perk update only after every three level-ups.

- Only very late in the game it dawned to me how super-useful the Steal-skill is. I wish I had invested on it more from the start. I thought it is mainly so that you can steal some low-quality stuff from people that you can sell for a bit of money, money that you get just as well by selling surplus items. But the thing is, if you are good at stealing, basically all your purchases will be free because right after you have paid for something (be it even some very expensive weapon or armor), you could steal your money back right after purchase, and some extra if the shopkeeper already had money on him. Damn, easiest way to make money, and apparently it doesn't hit your karma or anything unless you get caught (in which case you'd reload a save and try to steal again of course :)).

- Related to the earlier point, don't hoard items, due to the game-breaking "too many items" bug. I made money by selling stuff to stores all the time, but it seemed to me my sold items never disappeared from those stores but they kept them forever, which increased the amount of items in e.g. San Fransisco shops as I kept selling everything I found to them. And then I was hit by the bug. If you are good at stealing, then you don't have to make money by selling stuff, and after awhile you can even forget about scavenging loot from battles.

Quake. Every once in a while, I get this weird idea in my head that Quake is overrated, and then I play it again and I think, "What the hell was I thinking? This is great!" It's so fast and smooth and I love how things like the quad damage powerup encourage you to move quickly through levels. id certainly made a very smooth transition to true 3D because the level design is outstanding.

My only quibbles are that the weapons aren't very inspiring. The shotguns in particular just sound weak and aren't satisfying to use (the nailguns are much more fun), and aside from the grenade launcher they mostly feel like clones of Doom's weapons. And the boss battles, all two of them in the whole game, aren't very interesting. But those are just nitpicks, really.

I just completed Dishonored: Definitive Edition for Xbox One with "high chaos."

I might get Dishonored 2 in a couple of years.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

A lot of fun, very atmospheric with great music and sound effects, but not too long. Though I found the length to be perfect compared to the depth of gameplay. Any longer and the game might start to overstay its welcome. It's not that hard either. There are a few clever physics based puzzles, but no real head scratchers. The most difficult parts are definitely the boss fights. These are incredibly creative and can be quite tricky.

Still, very highly recommended! If you rush the game, you could be done in under 5 hours. But if play at a relaxed pace and try to get most of the ship upgrades and collectibles (which unlocks artwork and movies clips) then you'll spend about 7-ish hours on it. There is multiplayer, but I didn't try it.

PC:
+Touhou 13 - Ten Desires (Reimu, 1CC Normal, Default settings, no lives or bombs/spellcards remaining)
+Touhou 6 - Embodiment of Scarlet Devil Extra Stage (ReimuA, 1CC Normal, Default settings, no lives or bombs remaining)

It feels like playing Touhou games is now natural for me and less difficult than it appeared at the beginning! At this point, my past self would faint for two months straight with this track record.

But I'm not regretting it. The game series is just so good, it makes me happier, and warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Here is the Extra Stage run for the interested:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9QmarFD7hN4Z1hpeWs4YnlVTXc/view?usp=sharing

Prayer for Traffic Safety

<span class="bold">Epistory - Typing Chronicles</span>

I played this game's demo some time ago and fell in love with its beautiful origami/papercraft art style and its original gameplay. I bought it the minute it became available here on GOG, and I've been playing it every night for the last few days until I've 100%'ed it.

Now, typing games are hardly a new thing, but contrary to the Typing of the Dead series and their like, Epistory blends the typing mechanic into its world in a very elegant fashion, both narratively and mechanically. Regarding the former, it tells the story of a Muse trying to cure her artist from suffering writer's block. To that end, and by typing one word after another, she will unfold new narrative landscapes available to her artist (and by extension to you, the player) while at the same time getting them rid of nasty (mental?) bugs.

As per the game mechanics, each correctly typed word will grant you some XP, and more so if you chain them in rapid succession so you can keep the combo running and increasing. After a certain XP milestone is reached, you'll be awarded two skill points which can be used to unlock some of the Muse's (as well as her mount's, a giant three-tailed fox) abilities. XP also will enable you to unfold new explorable terrain, in which up to eight dungeons and several combat arenas will be gradually revealed. In some of these dungeons the Muse will be able to obtain additional typing powers: Fire, Ice, Spark, and Wind. These powers are required to access many blocked parts of the world map, but they also introduce a further strategic element to the typing battles against bugs (e.g. Ice freezes the baddies in place, or Wind pushes them further back). In fact, they become indispensable in the later part of the game, as some battles do really seem unwinnable only by typing alone, even to the standing World Champion of Fast Typing (if such a thing does exist :P).

All the locations are beautiful and varied, especially the dungeons: no two of them feel the same, as each one has its own visual style and puzzles. It really shows the devs took great care when designing the game, but I've got nonetheless a couple of minor complaints about certain design decisions. Most of them are certainly nitpickings (like e.g. not being able to leave a dungeon once you enter it unless you beat it, or the inability to pan over the map), but there's one particular thing I didn't like: there's a conflict between narrative and mechanics in that sometimes the game delivers some voice-acted exposition when you are being attacked by bugs or you've got a combo going on so you need to keep typing in order not to lose it. I missed a good deal of narrations that way, and I wish they were better timed so you could calmly listen to them unmolested (yeah, I know that everything that's voice acted also appears written in the ground so you can still read it later, but it's not the same).

Apart from that flaw, I think the rest of the game is nearly perfect and a great entertainment for anyone who likes to type. Plus, it can be a good tool to improve your typing abilities in a wide range of keyboard configurations and, thanks to its modding capabilities, also in many different languages.


My list of finished games in 2016

PC:
+Touhou 9 - Phantasmagoria of Flower View (Reimu, 1CC Normal, zero retries left)

Compared to the others, this is less about dodging bullets only and more about fighting the other side while dodging the bullets. The game pits you against nine bosses, and both of you play do the usual Touhou thing of shooting enemies and dodging bullets, but both sides are given lots of ways to attack the other, and it's a game set when one side runs out of lifes (which are replenished every level), only you are given the advantage in story mode because you also have retries and continues on top of that, retries taking you back to the beginning of the stage while normal life misses just move your character away from the miss spot and make you more likely to waste a retry.

It is still a Touhou game and it was somewhat difficult, but regardless, I finished it within two attempts! Unfortunately, the game had to crash while saving the replay...

Flower view of finished games