Continuing my absurd pursuit of easy platinum trophies I just "beat" Slyde on PS4. So, it's a game where you can infamously get a platinum trophy in a matter of seconds. It's (unsurprisingly) one of those "slide" puzzle games where pictures are split into a bunch of segments and you have to rearrange them, one panel at a time, to reconstruct the original picture.

I decided I'd try to "beat" this game legitimately but as it turns it isn't any good, even for the genre, and doesn't track your progress in any other way than by handing out trophies based on your last score - score high the first time and you instantly get platinum. The pictures are okay but nothing else about the game is. It has the most basic presentation imaginable but in spite of that fact the game makes the PS4 run hot on the main menu - curiously not during gameplay. One time the game glitched out on me and the segments were arranged in some insane manner where trying to move anything would make them skip wildly around the screen. It's so bad, it's crazy.

So after a couple of minutes I went all in and just followed the instructions from a guide. You can just follow a series of commands because, as it turns out, the developers apparently weren't even able to actually randomise how the segments are arranged. I have no idea how hard it would be to beat the platinum score legitimately.

No, I don't recommend this crap to anyone unless you're really desperate for platinum trophies. It's lazy, it's ugly and awfully executed.

And yes, I'm returning to actual enjoyable games now.

Last Day of June (Epic)

It was one of the Epic Store free games a while back. I usually look for something short, easy and story based after playing something long and involved (Valkyria Chronicles 4) and this game fit that pretty well. It's essentially an emotionally based walking simulator with a light overall puzzle. Has a bit of Groundhog Day vibe to it in that you replay the events of a single day to try and get the best result you can achieve. It was okay and took about 3 hours, I'd say play it if you got it free on Epic- otherwise I'd say wait for a sale on GOG if it's the sort of thing you feel like.

Singularity. A pretty good FPS with a few nice ideas and set pieces. Pity it's so generic with such a limited amount of enemies, pathetic 2-gun limit and short running time.

My list so far:
The Witcher 3 (it took me part of 2018 and 6 months of 2019)
Venetica
I have no mouth and I must scream
Monster Boy
Journey
Her Story
Also on mobile:
Final Fantasy XV pocket edition
Super mario run
Boot games took me a lot more than I expected. Super mario run to get all coins in all levels, FF XV just to complete all 10 chapters.

Think there are some "include me"s missing from the last few people posting lists :) Or you didn't want to be included in the OP?

A Robot Named Fight

A really cool Metroguelike. Or is it a Roguetroid? Anyway, this game is basically the "Binding of Isaac" roguelite formula but applied to Metroid instead of Zelda.

Imagine Metroid with with a short procedurally generated map with randomized loot (some of which allows you to go places you haven't gone before in true Metroid style) and as you play you unlock more types of items, and beating the "final" boss several times unlocks the "final final" boss, and there are secret bosses, etc. Also like in Binding of Isaac some equipment combinations make you a real force to be reckoned with.

Different runs can even have different traversal items used to get past the same type of obstacles. For example, Metroid had the Morph Ball to get through narrow/low passageways. In one run of A Robot Named Fight you might find the "slide" upgrade to accomplish the same thing, in another you might find an item that lets you go into a sonic ball, in yet another you might find an item that lets you morph into a small spider bot. There are also multiple different ways to activate switches behind walls, reach places too high for a normal jump, etc.

In addition to traversal upgrades there are stat upgrades, activated items using Energy (can carry one at a time), secondary weapons using the Energy bar for ammo), (can carry many at a time), modifiers for your primary gun (some affect secondary weapons too), a ton of different companion orbs/bots, etc. Various types of scrap dropped by enemies or found in secret places can be used at vendors or donated to mechanical god shrines for rewards (or curses if you donate the wrong combination/amount...) Basically there's a LOT here.

I actually almost dropped the game after a few failed runs, but then I looked up the proper approach to use with Shrines to get rewards instead of curses (though some of the rewards, since they can't be dropped, could almost be looked at as a curse), and the extra gear that netted me made it a far more fun game. I'm now only missing 4 of the 70 achievements, and 3 of them are counter to the way I play the game - speedruns and "low gear", so I probably won't bother with them. [Edit: Ok, only 2 achievements left, both speedruns, and i keep trying them for some reason.]

One thing that should be mentioned is that the jump mechanics take a lot to get used to. Depending on how you jump you get either a more or less standing jump with slow horizontal velocity/reach, or a diagonal somersault jump with high horizontal velocity that can be difficult to control. You'll get used to it eventually, but for me it still caused the occasional death on spikes (which don't insta-kill, but the short invulnerability window + damage knockback can combine to make it hard to get back to safety, especially if you start panicking and mashing the jump button which will lead to you effectively stun-locking yourself until death.)

You missed my entries....:(

But feel free to add me to the OP if you want as well. :)

Was referring to those who posted lists, which are what the OP links to. And the OP isn't mine, was just reminding those showing up on the thread recently of SCPM's request for those who wanted to be added to it.

Ok then, my bad and no worries then. :)

Two nice games somewhat marred by their frustrating end sections:

The Tale of Fur and Frost (NWN module)

A shorter (3-4h?) adventure with a good setting for rangers or druids, debut model by QuenGalad, and it's a pretty good debut, highly polished, well written, neat area design, several interesting little side stories, Terry Pratchett cameos, what's not to like? Sadly, there is a huge difficulty spike at the end and the last boss fight was more like tedious work then fun, so boring and annoying that it made me lose some of the previous enthusiasm I had for this module, which is a shame, since it's clearly a labor of love.

Q.U.B.E. 2

Mostly easy puzzles, but I liked never really getting stuck and finding the solution for every puzzle within a couple of minutes, constantly moving forward. The mechanics work nicely, most of the time, and are fun to play around with. The area design is simple but stylish. There is a bit of a story to it and some voice-acting, it's alright, not all that interesting and the story-telling a bit so-so, but you'll mostly play this game for the puzzling anyway, not for the story. One thing that might bother some players is that you can't speed up and run, you always walk at the same speed. But that was alright with me, you don't have to walk *that' much, and you quickly get used to it.

What's worse is that apparently depending on your FPS, physics can behave differently sometimes, and that is the reason why I wrecked my brain over the last puzzle in the game until I gave up and checked a walkthrough, only to find out that I already had the right idea, but it didn't work cause my game was bugged. I kept falling of a block that I should have been able to stay on, and I found out that others have had the same issue and fixed it by restarting the puzzle. Since I didn't feel like doing that, I just watched the end sequence on YouTube. Also, there is only one savegame, and two endings, but I suppose you can see both by repeating the last chapter or puzzle (chapters can be chosen directly from the main menu, once unlocked by completion).

AL1: Siege of Shadowdale (NWN module)

Waiting for the enhanced Tyrants of the Moonsea to appear on GOG, I took the opportunity to play through the author Alazander's first module from 2002. Seeing that it's one of the early modules created not that long after NWN's release and Alazander was still learning the ropes, it is a bit more basic and "vanilla" than later Hall of Fame modules, and the story is your average D&D Forgotten Realms fare with some shorter dungeon crawls, but that doesn't mean it's not well made or entertaining. I enjoyed playing through it (estimated time 4-6 hours, taking my new cleric from lvl 1 to 7), and found it to be very polished (with the exception of one bug duplicating a mighty foe at the very ending of the game, but for reasons I won't spoil here it didn't make much of a difference).

I had one minor gripe, and that is that I missed the opportunity to conclude two optional side quests, in one case because the character needed to solve it was hidden in a corner of an otherwise pretty bare map that I had no reason to explore inch by inch (and the character would only appear when getting very close, could not be seen from far away), in the other case because I think the item needed was unidentified and I had no means to identify it myself (despite having good Lore skills), so it would have required some serious and tedious backtracking to town, after I found the item deep down in a bigger, linear dungeon. So I moved forwards instead, thinking there would still be an opportunity to identify and deliver it on the return trip, but at the end of the game, I had the item but no chance to deliver it anymore. Oh well.

Still, I didn't expect to get drawn into it, after hearing about its simple nature, but then I couldn't stop playing. Maybe my longer hiatus from NWN worked in its favor, but it's actually pretty solid and enjoyable, if you don't go into it with the highest expectations. Looking forward to transferring my character to AL2, and hopefully, when I'm done with that, by then AL3: Tyrants of the Moonsea will finally be available here. *shakes fist at Beamdog and GOG*

Doom II: Hell on Earth , on Ultra-Violence difficulty.

Continuing my dumb pursuit of cheap platinum trophies I beat Hitman Go on PS4 now. Unlike the previous two games I "beat" this one is actually a pretty great title that I enjoyed a lot on Android a few years back and I did all levels and objectives legitimately. I think it's a brilliant mobile game, possibly the best one I've played, but just a decent game on "big" platforms.

It's pretty brilliant how they adapted Hitman to mobile here: by turning it into a turn-based puzzle game where everything is stylised as a diorama, so what you're actually doing is (probably) developing 47's plan for an upcoming mission. I loved the idea on mobile but on PS4 I felt that the minimalist presentation makes it a tad boring. As it is it's just a series of thematically connected puzzles. It could have used some sort of narration that adds some context to the missions. But still: it has a pretty cool melancholic atmosphere and the developers did place some cute details on the maps subtly telling little stories (e.g. there's two seemingly drunk soldiers on a bench getting yelled at by a superior - or in the crowd at a wedding you can see one guest who's clearly devastated by the wedding happening).

Anyway, it's a pretty decent puzzle game. You have to plan routes and time your moves with patrols, soon you also get tools for manipulating guards or killing them in other ways than just walking through them. The mechanics are pretty abstract, for instance you can't just wait on the spot but are sometimes forced into a move that will make you fail, but due to the game's abstract presentation that's okay. The formula is pretty basic and the puzzles' potential for complexity is rather limited but some of the levels, especially if you want to meet all objectives (e.g. kill all enemies or beat a level in X turns), get quite tough and may take 10-15 minutes to solve (at least in my case). The cool thing is that the developers really tried to get everything out of the formula and almost all chapters introduce new enemies with special behaviour (e.g. guard dogs that follow you around) or tools (e.g. disguises that keep certain enemies from attacking you).

If I have one serious complaint, besides the lack of context or narration, it's that they didn't bother to include a counter for the moves you've already used on the map. So on the maps which I had to beat in X turns I eventually started counting my moves out loud. That's a pretty dumb oversight but doesn't ruin the game.

Anyway, all in all it's a pretty good, original and satisfying puzzle game. I may try the next games in the "Go" series, Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, but from what I've heard they are worse and (rather obviously) this puzzle idea just doesn't go as well with those franchises as with Hitman.

Devil May Cry 5 (XB1X)

Recent Xbox Game Pass addition, so I had to give it a play through. Well, I've actually started my second play through as well- on a harder difficulty. DMC games really lend themselves to replaying. I think the series is back in form, DMC 4 felt like only half a game, since the entire second half was just the first half played backwards, right down to repeated bosses. Number 5 is still short, but it's an excellent high paced score brawler.

It's also 4K60, gameplay never seems to drop a frame- though I'm using freesync, so there could be slight unnoticed frame drops of course. The cutscenes do have some stutters from time to time, but nothing major. Whilst the graphics are awesome, the overall level art style is a bit dull- it's pretty much all hell like tunnels, looking a lot like Doom 2016 in fact. I still prefer the original games in the series with their more gothic horror style. But the gameplay makes up for it. Fast fluid combat with lots of build options to play with to suit your style. Plus the story takes you through 3 different characters with equally different styles. I especially liked playing as "V"- he is a weak character that uses pet demons to do his fighting- though he must finish off weakened enemies himself.

The story is as silly and over the top as every other DMC game, what else would you expect? If you've played the other games, you'd have to be pretty dense not to see the main plot twists coming. Also some scenes are the usual Japanese game comedy gold- bordering on Kojima style weird. Play it just to see the scene where Nico gives Dante a new hat.

It was good fun, and I think I'll keep on with my second play through on the unlocked Son of Sparda difficulty. It will be a bit faster now that I can skip all the story cutscenes, since I've seen them.