Assassin's Creed Syndicate (XB1X)

The good part is that it has the usual amazing historically based world, just like other AC games. It looks, sounds and feels just right and that's the thing I like most about the series. Though, let's be honest...London isn't quite as exotic or exciting as some of the other previous locations in the series.

But I'd class it overall as the least enjoyable AC game, and I have played all of them now, some of them twice. Basically, apart from the fun carriage races, the world activities are pretty average. And the actual missions are the worst in any AC game. Not only did the devs decide to put in lots of my "favorite" (sarcasm) activity- tailing missions, they went one step further and introduced an even more annoying mission type. Kidnapping missions. I hate them, the devs apparently love them, as it felt like half the missions required kidnapping.

It ran very smoothly and had no bugs or crashes. Visually, a year ago I would have said it looks awesome. But in the meantime I've recently played AC Origins at or close to 4K and the original 360 version of AC at 4K with Microsofts awesome emulation enhancements. Now 900p doesn't hold up so well anymore. It's a funny world when 10 year old Xbox 360 code can be made to look better than a game released only 2 years ago.

I'm replaying my favorite AC games, I don't see myself ever replaying Syndicate. Once will suffice for this one.

Me being new to the Assassin's Creed series, but already having collected AC I to IV from various sales and giveaways, which game would you say is the best to start with for someone new to the franchise? Should I just start with the first or is another of I-IV best for a first-timer?

Mainlining
I won it during the Christmas Avatar giveaway, thanks again PaterAlf

The game is kinda average. It does have a potential but in practice it’s either wasting or destroying it. I believe some real hacking mechanism could spice thing up. That’s the wasted potential because sadly, it’s just a game which is a sort of p&c about hacking but you can’t really influence it either way - you just do what the game wants you to do. And here we come to my second point - destroyed potential. The game doesn’t allow any meaningful freedom. You really have to follow the case just as it was intended. Sure, there are situations where you may arrest different people but you won’t even realize it at the time. Arresting system is also broken because you can only present a single evidence. In many cases you can have several documents that qualify but no, you have to pick the one that the devs had in mind. What’s even worse in some cases arresting a suspect with that single evidence doesn’t make any sense - you have to include another one to make it valid but nope - you can’t do that. The game also contains several plot holes but I don’t want to spoil it so just take my word for it. I had some fun with the game but can’t really recommend it.


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Ode

A short colorful 3D game by the creators of Grow Home & Grow Up which mixes swarm mechanics with music elements. It has four regular puzzle and exploration levels and one Christmas-themed, time-limited and score-based bonus level that you can replay in order to beat your highscore. There is no save function, you have to play each level in one sitting, but once unlocked you can select the levels. The regular levels each take about half an hour to play through, depending on how thorough you are and how quickly you figure them out, and the bonus level gives you one and a half minute each time. There are some minor issues with the camera which zooms in too closely near walls, making it hard to see anything, and one time I glitched through a wall, but none of that was game breaking. I quite enjoyed Ode, it's nice and relaxing, and I liked that it works without words and instructions on what to do, you just learn by playing. Its elements should be familiar for fans of indie games, but the sum of them still makes for a unique game. I bought it at 50% off and thought it well worth that price.

I'd say give AC2 a try. Maybe Brotherhood is considered a little better, but the story sort of follows straight on from AC2. AC2 is still my favorite of the series. If you like that one then you can just play Brotherhood and Revelations as a trilogy in order.

But if you like the sound of sailing a pirate ship, then AC4 would be a good start as well.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Stories: The Path of Destinies

This game made a very bad first impression on me: Long loading times, mediocre writing, not at all as pretty looking as screenshots made me believe, uninspired levels - just a few opponents and crates to smash but a lot of running around through bland deserted 'corridors', and the whole concept a blatant Bastion rip-off ... (At least that's what I thought at the time.)

But after a while I gave it a second chance and it grew on me. And it's actually not bad at all. I liked how even though you have to replay the same few levels several times (with slightly changed paths, occasionally), it still felt exciting enough since there was progress in the combat, new opponent types getting added, new abilities and moves gained by leveling up, new swords to unlock formerly locked paths, and new upgrades for swords. The general plot is simple but offers enough possibilities for variation, and despite my initial impression the writing actually has its moments, some comments by the narrator even made me smile (although they're also third-wall-breaking and unfitting at times, like "You no nothing, Jon Snow"). The narrator always came up with new comments on everything that wasn't story-related, and I think I've never heard the same comment twice in many hours, and that's an impressive achievement.

Unfortunately the story texts are often repeated though, and while you can skip some of them, others are unskippable. And after 5 or 6 hours of having played through a number of different paths to failure that weren't all that different in the end, the repetition of the story and levels threatened to counteract the fun of combat and character progression, especially when I had upgraded all swords and hidden treasure chests became uninteresting to search for and loot. Also, some paths and endings were a bit lame, not really convincing or rewarding. If you play through the whole thing just to find out it wasn't the right path, even this bad ending should make the journey worth it, and that wasn't always the case. The game sometimes lead me down similar paths than before, ignoring the new knowledge I had gained before, and it felt like it was cheating (but I have to admit there were also some paths and endings that were quite awesome and satisfying, even if things went horribly wrong - I just wish they had put that much thought and effort in all of them).

Anway, after I had unlocked all four truths, the game practically told me the right path and I finished it. Which on the one hand was a bit disappointing, on the other hand I was glad, since I wouldn't have had much more patience for replaying otherwise. I've still only discovered a third of all possible endings at max, but after I know the right one and with all the repetition, I don't think I'm still motivated enough to explore the rest, so I'm officially done with Stories, after about 7 hours.

My experience, in short: slow and disappointing beginning, very enjoyable and interesting middle part, but got a bit old after a few hours and ended a bit after I was beginning to feel that it was overstaying its welcome. Still, a more interesting and enjoyable game than I thought at first, just a little repetitive after a while.

Minecraft: Story Mode - A Telltale Game Series

Got this as an early Christmas gift from an online friend in December. It's the usual Telltale formula, more like an interactive TV series with some choices and very easy QTEs, and the story is kid-friendly and not too deep, but I enjoyed it. I don't know much about Minecraft, have never played it, and it was funny seeing how they turned such a simple game into a story. A bit weird that it has five episodes but the story is already concluded after the first four, and the fifth is the beginning of a new series of adventures, which supposedly is continued in the Season Pass. But the fifth episode still tells a story of its own and has an actual ending (I'm guessing that second series of adventures from the Season Pass is more episodic in nature, one self-contained story per episode or so), and the cliffhanger that follows the ending of episode 5 isn't too exciting, so that's okay. I'm not sure whether I need to see how it continues, I guess I'll decide after taking a break from the series.

I started playing Assassin's Creed II, but the game really throws you into the deep story-wise. In the opening, there's a lot of references to things you are supposed to know from playing Assassin's Creed, so I installed the first game. In Assassins Creed (as available here on GOG) the beginning does explain quit clear what the game is about, what an animus is, how the controls function. So it's better to start with the first I discovered.

Ok, so I beat Oxenfree and Stories Untold (friend's PC, mine can't run them), and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (got a Switch... now where's my 2d Mario? xD).

Harvester

A point 'n' click adventure with a certain B-movie charme. If you can stand pretty bad FMV scenes and cheesy voice acting, the first half is actually pretty good. The story is interesting (and a lot more satirical than I thought it would be) and while you explore the small town and meet it's degenerated inhabitants there's a creepy atmosphere of mystery and anxiety. There are several puzzles, but fortunately most of them are logical and you don't have to combine everything with everything (and everyone) to find the solution.

But once you enter the lodge the game falls apart. It completely loses it's focus, there are lots of annoying fighting sequences and the ending (or both of them to be more precise) are very unsatisfying.

So all in all I can't really recommend the game. Might be ok, if you are interested in classic adventure games, but there are certainly many better ones out there.

Complete list of finished games in 2018

You are quoting wrong person. :-)

Poratl of Praevus is not part of the game on Steam as it apparently has other owner than Hexen 2 and as I was not that thrilled (I am not saying the game is bad but I don't love it) I don't think I'll go hunting for it.


And then explode? :-)


I finished Dragon Knight on Monday.
At least I think so. Sigh, my weakness for boobs betrayed me again. The game is beat'em up/hack'n' slash game (something like Golden Axe) with rogue-lite elements.
Those consist of moving back to starting village if PC dies and permanent skill tree that persist through dead and is supposed to make the game easier as in something like Rogue Legacy.
Big problem with the game is that is is very easy and extremely short. I like this kind of games but I suck at them. Even then it took me some 1,5 hour of casual play to get through it. I died exactly twice. Once at the beginning when I was trying to figure out how to play it with keayboard and second time when I was trying to learn to use skill (and find what it even was) while fighting boss. Then I picked good weapon and breezed through the game in a very short time.
Well, I got to final boss and defeeated it. Then I was transported to the starting village with all gear and could go through the game again. Maybe that's some sort of hidden NG+ but the game probably didn't tell me. Itried to pass few screens but enemies were same as first time and I was able to one-shot them all so prolly not NG+.
Why I am not sure about anything is that the english transaltion is awful and "story" doesn't make any sense 90% of the time.
Another negative is uneven sound levels. Some enemy attacks are extremely loud and made my ears hurt.
Also there is very little boobies in there. But a lot of reptilians. They should be dragons but most looks like mangeld dinosaurs.

The game was in the Early Access for quite a long time and released only last week. It has very positive reviews on Steam and now I am quite suspicious why is that. Now I doubt their validity.
Considering how short the game is and how it "ends", I suspect they weren't working on the game anymore and just wrapped it up quickly and released it to get some exposure and make some bucks off it.
Unfortunately it worked on me. :-/
Even for 2 Euros the game wasn't worth it and I regret buying it.

Full list.

I was hoping someone will post in the meantiem so i don't have 2 consecutive posts.:-)

The Disney Afternoon Collection

It's PC collection of old Disney NES games based on their cartoons. 5 Platformers and 1 Shoot'em Up.
It consist of:
Ducktales: Not bad game per se but it shows it is oldest of them all (1989) and Ducktales 2 is much better and more polished so it outshines this. Still decent, though. This one I never played in the past.
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: I quite liked this one and unlike Ducktales here first game isn't much worse than the sequel. What I didn't like in both this and the sequel is that you justcan't go back at all and if you go vertically as soon as floor is slightly out of screen it ceases to exists and kills you if you try to return to it. I think I played this one but only at friends back then.
Talespin: Only non-platformer in this one. I haven't even heard of this before buying this bundle. It is very bad game in my opinion and I didn't like it at all. I don't like how it controlled, how levels were and all that flying and combat weren't too much of fun either. Clearly worst of the bunch.
Darkwing Duck: Not the biggest fan of this. It was often unfair. I know it was kind of standard back then but still it felt more prominent here. Also I found controls quite unprecise and unintuitive (to climb down platform one has to press DOWN and JUMP and then just JUMP, it D+J is pressed again you jump up). I didn't have much fun with it but I guess it was OK.
Ducktales 2: The reason I bought this collection. I loved it back on NES. And I still do. It is easily the best of the bunch. It has great sound and music, levels are varied in both layout and theme and I enjoyed the gameplay. If I was to name one thing that was kind of letdown it was the secret level. When I played it on NES I had Japanese version and I was never able to figure out how to get all map pieces. I always kept wondedring what a great mystery it could hold and bnow when I found out, it felt kind of cheap. But it doesn't mean the game isn't awesome.
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2: Basically the same as Ch'n'D 1 with some improvements. Not much more to add.

The game has standard mode where one just plays the game but with one big addition and that rewind. At any moment one can hold rewind button and the game will really rewind as much as you want. This is to tackle unfairness of some of the games and makes them as easy as player wants.
With rewind, beating the game can be done really fast, in some 30-40 minutes.
The games also feature Boss Rush mode and Time Attack mode. I decided to try those too and to get all achievements tied to them. In those rewind can't be used at all so one gets to play them the way they were meant to. Boss Rush is not that hard but Time Attack was quite hard and in some games it took me quite a long time (as in several hours). Honestly, in some of the games, ie. Darkwing Duck, it was quite frustrating and not fun anymore.
Yet, I persisted and beat them all.
Dumb thing about this mode is that time and UI take substantial part of the screen for no good reason and makes the game window smaller.

The port is not great but is acceptable. There was lag without any apparent reason sometimes and projectiles in Darkwing Duck sometime flew right through enemies. Otheriwse there wasn't much to complain.

Overall it was mixed bag ranging from great game (Ducktales 2) through some decent ones to outright bad apples (Talespin).


Complete list.

Legacy of the Void

I'm a little confused. SPOILER WARNING






I had heard a lot of people bitching about Kerrigan getting killed, but it seems at the end she comes back. Did I miss something?

and BTW I just went back after posting this and snagged the last Achievement I was missing. Standard/Medium of course. I don't know how the hell you people play these things on Hard and Brutal. I'm barely scraping by and I keep reading, "Oh! It's simple!" :P

Now that makes all three chapters of Starcraft 2 in the past two weeks. Think I'll lay off the RTS for a while. :P It's my favorite genre without question, but the thought of gathering resources right now makes me want to puke. :D
Or should that be :O~~

I'm... Not quite sure. Was that really her or Raynor imagining things or just some projection for his benefit from whatever she became and wherever that is?
Not something I'd want to play (nor would I have the skills to beat it anyway), talking of the game(play) itself, but watched playthroughs, mainly just because I'm quite fond of Kerrigan as a character and think they did a pretty good job with her through it all, all the way to that fitting end.