Gunman Clive (13th March 12:08am)

A fun little side shooter. The art is awesome for a game this size and the music is good. Everything else is average

Shantae: Risky's Revenge

An enjoyable metroidvania, but that's about it. Had to use a guide a couple times to figure out where to go next.

Thunder Wolves - An action shoot em-up that plays as a modern perception of what 1980's action movies were like, as a result the script and voice acting are overdone to fit into this perception. The game itself is decent, the missions consist of blowing up some objective before moving onto the next one. The story is forgettable, but for a few hours of action it's an enjoyable game.

Rainbow Six Vegas - I wasn't sold on this one initially, playing through the first areas I didn't see much that was exciting. The Vegas setting was interesting, and the night views of the city were impressive. However, the game grew on me, it's essentially a modern military version of Republic Commando, with you controlling your squad's positioning and tactics. The story is mediocre, in the vein of 24. A decent shooter with some interesting tactical options presented in how you approach your objectives (elevation is key).

Xcom:Enemy Within.

Great expansion to a great game.

Fran Bow

I wasn't sure what to think of it in the beginning, as the first chapter was nice enough but didn't really draw me in that much. Lots of gore and macabre images in the familiar setting of an asylum made it seem a bit like your average horror adventure. But that changed a lot once the asylum was left behind, the game started to grow on me really quickly then and I loved all the following chapters for their delightful weirdness, beautiful illustration and originality.

It's a bit of an odd mixture between horrid and cute, creepy and heart-warming, serious and funny, wise and naive, but that fits the story very well. There are a few things that I didn't find very believable. For example, the game is supposed to take place in the 1940's, but it isn't always true to that setting and also features things like a color TV with several different channels. And Fran is supposed to be eleven years old, but at times she's a lot more knowledgable than she ought to be at that age (e.g. talking about "placenta" and Einstein's relativity), while the rest of the time I found most of her dialogue more fitting for a six or seven year old girl. Of course part of that could be explained by her quirky character, and the special circumstances or condition she finds herself in (naivity as a coping mechanism), but it's still not very convincing, if you think about it too much. Apart from that, I liked the writing a lot though. Some of Fran's remarks are really remarkable, they made me laugh or think, and they perfectly capture the weird but somehow logical and even wise ways in which children sometimes think. (They are also a bit reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's Alice occasionally, and the game is very open about this inspiration.)

As a point and click adventure it is mostly easy and very enjoyable, although there were two to three puzzles which forced me to take a peek in a walkthrough and I think they could have been done much better (e.g. in one case the most obvious solution was only allowed after finding out that a lot more obscure and complicated solution didn't work out, and there was no logical explanation why Fran couldn't and wouldn't have tried the more obvious thing first; if you try it too early, you just get a generic "I could, but I won't" reaction).

Another thing that I found irritating at first was the way that the speech bubble dialogue is handled, as sometimes two lines of dialogue following each other remain displayed on the screen at the same time, and not always in the order you'd expect them to (not seldom the second line is displayed above the first line, instead of below, contrary to how successive dialogue is usually displayed in comics). And if you want to read all of Fran's comments about objects in the environment, you have to click on those objects several times (between two and five), until they start repeating again. It's nothing you can't adapt to quickly, I just feel there might have been more immersive and professionally looking ways to handle that. And adventure gamers probably won't like that there is only one savegame and no manual saving. You will never lose any progress, the game always saves on quitting and let's you continue exactly where you left it, but you won't be able to replay specific scenes unless you replay the whole chapter. There are no voiceovers, btw, and sometimes, instead of animations, you get illustrated stills. But I actually think voiceovers wouldn't have suited the game, and I really liked the stills.

Anyway, most of the criticism above is just nitpicking and a lot less problematic than it might sound in my review. Overall I thought this was a very good adventure game, with a gripping story full of original ideas, as well as fantastic graphics and great sound design. It was also longer than I expected it to be, and since I enjoyed it so much, I consider that a good thing.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3)

Pretty much a remake of the original Ninja Gaiden Black (a spectacle fighter/character action game that you should play if you're a fan of Devil May Cry and other similar action games) for the PS3. The original game felt pretty tight when it came to the combat and difficulty. There were a few things from the that did bother me here and there, some of which just comes down to being a game from that time (the camera controls weren't great at times, some of the platforming sections were annoying to get through, and the bow wasn't that great during the beginning), but overall the game itself was great. I recently played through Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Blade, and wanted to visit the Sigma series. I thought it would be a simple remake that was mostly just a graphical upgrade, but it was surprisingly much more than that as far as changes go:

Positive:
-Graphical upgrade (although some stuff looks worse than the original game).
-Quick Menu for healing items (where you use the D-pad to select and use healing items on the fly).
-Changes to certain weapons (being able to use your bow while in mid-air is a nice touch).
-Rachel (despite being in the new mediocre chapters) was fun character to play as.
-Running on water (kind of a minor, but I still thought it was neat).

Neutral:
-Changes to enemy placement (running into a group of bikers near the Bar, and fighting berserkers in chapter 17).
-One new weapon: Dragon's Claw and Tiger's Fang (didn't really use them that much, but that's just me).

Negative:
-Some changes to the map design where certain shortcuts no longer exist (which bugged me somewhat).
-The new chapters that you can play through were...just kind of there (although the fight with Gamov was pretty cool).
-Some of the CGI cutscenes, as well as a few other unlockables, were removed from this version of the game.
-The game feels easier than the original one (even if you ignore the quick item menu).

Even looking past the unnecessary changes that were made, it felt pretty close to the original game as far as it goes, and was still a blast to play through overall.

Now on to the next game: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.

I really want to play these on my Vita as they seem fun. Read the framerate is awful though. :(
How. O_o
Weird changes.

The first Ninja Gaiden on Vita runs on 30 FPS, but it's otherwise fine. The second Ninja Gaiden on Vita apparently has frame rate issues, but there are some fixes on this. If you decide to buy the first Ninja Gaiden on Vita, I'll advise you against buying the PAL version, which is censored and instead to go for the US one.

I have everything on my Dutch account, I guess I'll have to make do with a censored version. Thank you for the information.

Stardew Valley

Really charming and addicting game. Certainly has that "one more day" factor. The graphics are really good and suite the game; had it been in 3D, I don't think I would have been as interested in the game. I also really liked the soundtrack (although, it wouldn't had hurt if there were just a few more tracks in there, as some of them started to get a little too familiar near the end).

The game doesn't really have a "story" and even the quests you get are totally not mandatory, but I did learn that you'd get "evaluated" after a certain point in time, so I played until then and made up my own goals in the meantime - mainly, getting the Community Center back on its feet after the townspeople had let it go down to shit as time had passed. And that I did; also, I managed to find every mineral and ship every farm and forage item, as far as completion goes.

The game revolves heavily around grinding: you plant stuff, you water stuff, you harvest stuff, you fish stuff, you sell stuff, you mine stuff, you find stuff...etc. Because I was so entranced by the game, I didn't mind it for the first year (4*28 days) but around year 2 I definitely started to feel a bit fatigued. There wasn't that much new things to do at that point: I could try grind for artifacts I hadn't yet found, which is what I mostly did near the end. The game does let players play the game endlessly but I can't really see myself continuing any further, considering there's nothing left to do but continue grinding for completion in the remaining categories...and I already found that to be pretty damn boring. I enjoyed the game whilst trying to get to this point, so I'm closing down that book now while I still have very fond memories of the game.

All in all, recommended for any wannabe farmers and the olden days SNES RPG enthusiasts.

I didn't play the Vita versions of Sigma 1 and 2, but from what I've read the first one at the very least has a stable 30 FPS. You can mess around with the settings in Sigma 2 to get a better FPS, but overall it's kind of a mess (but then again the original Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Xbox 360 had major issues trying to keep a consistent 60).

Yeah, I wasn't exactly of a fan of some of these things. The removal of cutscenes (especially the one at the end of chapter 2 where you confront Doku) kind of ruined what were great moments in the game. I also forgot to mention that they changed the background music in certain places, most of which didn't really make sense either. Those additions and removals didn't really ruin the game for me (obviously since I recommended it), but they were pretty noticeable.

Finished the full season of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. I liked episode 3 & 4 the most. Episode 5 had some bad puzzle design decisions and I was getting bored of those episodes, so I quickly used a guide to progress as soon as I was stuck. Quite average point'n clicks.

Full list here.

Saints Row IV Re-Elected (Xbox One)

The "Re-Elected" thing in this case simply means definitive edition. It is SR4 with all DLC and slightly up rated graphics for the newer consoles. I bought it bundled together with Gat Out of Hell for A$9 which is a bargain I don't regret paying for at all.
So Saints Row began as a funny and more fun GTA clone and has now morphed into a funny Crackdown-Infamous-Prototype clone instead. I know lots of people don't like the change of direction, and at first I didn't either, but I happen to like those games it's cloning. So SR4 is a different genre really. After a few hours I decided I prefer SR4 to SR3, though SR2 is still the best of the series for me.

From taking control of Stilwater in SR1 and 2, Steelport in SR3, virtual Steelport in SR4, I can only assume SR5 will find the Saints taking control of the Galaxy. It's about the only direction things can go given the story so far.

Just like earlier games SR4 survives on the strength of it's oddball returning characters and simple fun open world. There's nothing really difficult unless you're aiming to Gold Medal every activity and challenge as a 100 percent completionist. Soaring over the city with your super powers and dropping down to make precision landing felt more like being Batman than any actual Batman game I've played.
The activities were mostly fun like usual, except anything with "Genki" in it's title...I fucking HATE Genki!

The DLC is all included in this version, which is just as well since both parts are short and not especially noteworthy. I would not pay much for them, if anything at all really, on their own.

The game looked good enough, but no SR game has ever been cutting edge. At least it ran smooth and flawlessly all the way, and the controls were pretty much spot on. I'm looking forward to Gat Out of Hell in a month or two- I think playing it directly on the back of SR4 would be just too much of a similar thing. Given the ultra low prices that these games have been selling for on sales lately, I have no doubt that Deep Silver will be bringing them to GOG sometime this year.

Fortified

I'll be honest: if it weren't for the cheesy Silver Era comic book style this game has, it probably would have flown completely under my radar. I thought it looked so unique, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Basically, this is "Martians Must Die!" in that it's so similar to its Orcs counterpart: enemies spawn from predetermined locations and start marching towards the rocketships you must defend. Before each wave, you can purchase defenses such as turrets, and once the wave begins, you're out there on the battlefield as well. But the thing is, this game really doesn't fare well if the question is "But which game is better?" There are three reasons why that is.

1. The defenses you can deploy are all very weak and most have incredibly poor range (seriously, for example riflemen and rocketeers can only shoot things that are only a few meters away...how??) Unless you invest every dollar into protecting one specific path, you can almost never truly rely on their aid as some enemy is always guaranteed to leak through - and unlike in Orcs, once they reach their destination, they don't despawn, but will instead hammer the rocketship until it's down, which requires you to come fix the errors your troops made. And if you invest everything in one place, you'll be overwhelmed on every other path. Therefor, you're forced to run around the map (while constantly looking at the minimap for leaks). I would have preferred bigger enemy waves, but stronger defenses with more range.

2. The enemies lack personality, they are all a some sort of robot. The theme could have just as well be "Rise of the Machines" rather than "Attack of the Martians". In Orcs, they look more appealing and have more personality with their grunts and their rain of blood upon death.

3. The game is very short, boasting a mere 12 missions. Of course, I could play through it again as the other three classes (I finished it with Captain) but that's not the same as simply having more content in the first place.

I would also argue that the difficulty doesn't scale perfectly: I thought level 10 was WAY more difficult than the remaining two missions. It took me maybe five tries to get through level 10, while I won the last missions on my first try.

So... if you liked Orcs Must Die, this one's pretty much the same deal (albeit with flaws), but I would advice waiting for a big sale before getting it.