DuckTales: Remastered (2013) (Linux/Proton)

I finished this one a few weeks ago, I've forgot to mention it here. Nice, classic platformer with smooth and decent gameplay. I liked the memories of DuckTales from my childhood and it's nice how the game is divided into a few, totally different environments (journeys). There are even some plot twists. Nothing spectacular, but still a nice game to play, it you try to keep your inner child alive. Shame the title is not available here, on GOG.

List of all games completed in 2020.

Call of Duty Ghosts (PS3)

I only have this because it came with the A$50 PS3 I bought last year. I doubt that the PS3 version is the version to play. It tried to run at 60fps and felt pretty good (well , as good as a shooter can using a PS3 controller) for the time it was 60fps. But many sections obviously drop well below 60 as well, and they are noticeable. It does look good for a last gen console game though.

The game is pretty average, but in it's defense there were some levels that were quite fun- the zero gravity orbital levels and the underwater level were quite good. But for everything else it seems Infinity Ward went to the same developer school as the hacks at Naughty Dog. The enemy AI is the cheap type, they just target me no matter where I am and never do damage to my squad mates. in fact they ignore them mostly and run past them to get to me. Obviously to balance the enemy AI they made my squad useless morons as well. I don;t know where these elite special forces find these idiots. They continuously pop their idiot heads up in front of me when I'm shooting bad guys and then bitch that I shoot them. But still, better having them in front than behind me. Every time I draw fire and try to back away behind cover...I can't because some doofus is right behind me trying to put his penis in my bung hole. Or something. I'm pretty sure elite special forces are trained to keep separation and spacing. The most intelligent squad member was Riley. Riley is a dog, he never once got in my way and never once tried to hump me from behind- if only the human squad members were like him.
But the worst part was how hard it was to tell bad guys from my own squad. The dev who thought having both sides wear different shades of grey camo should be strung up by the testicles for a weekend as punishment.

Weirdly, the games fun moments and the short length (7 hours) made it tolerable and worth it all for the good parts, but only just.

Football Drama, July 8 (Itch)-A bizarre narrative game/sports simulation. The story was wacky but fun. Some of the post game vignettes got a little repetitive but generally they were weird and wonderful. The game simulations were the low points. Even though I won the championship I never really felt I understood what I was doing. In the second half of the season the games got rather tedious, 18 weeks was too much The commentators during the games were pretty amusing until they, too got repetitive. The game could have benefited from a shorter season or more unique dialogue rather than the same repeating lines.

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Limbo (2011) (Linux)

Actually I've dropped this one. I played the game a bit before. Now I tried to complete it. but after ~100 minutes of gameplay I don't want to continue. The game is simply frustrating. I've passed more than half of the story (as "select chapter" says), but the first really tricky obstacle (moving saw and 2 crates) caused rage quit. It's different then other puzzle platformers. I admit – it's smart and has unique visuals, but it also has heavy and dense atmosphere, which gives no pleasure; it does not force you to replay a lot when you die, but it's still irritating enough, sorry.

List of all games completed in 2020.

Bound by Flame (XB1X)

Xbox 360 version played on XB1X. The first Spiders RPG I've ever played and first impressions were very rough. The voice acting reminds me of the original Resident Evil a bit and the actors obviously were lacking adequate context when doing their lines resulting in that "recorded train station message" feel. The areas are also small and very tunnel like. Then there is lots of backtracking over the same areas whilst fighting enemies that never change. And screw that final boss battle- nothing like the encounters in the rest of the game.

But as it went on I also feel that it developed some rough charm as well and I soon found myself enjoying the game anyway. One aspect I did really come to like was the combat. It's not just a button spamming combat system, it's very much about timing counters and wearing down enemies that are quite resilient and keeping on the move to deal with being outnumbered. The areas and chapters being short and smallish prevented the enemies becoming too tiresome. Spiders have tried to ape the Bioware companion style, but fall a little flat. Edwin was worth taking along for her breasts and the undead guy (forgot his name) has some really good lines, but the other companions were just there to fill the usual roles and were not as interesting- not to mention being pretty worthless in combat.
The game has you make some important decisions along the way to shape what path your character takes.

Overall it was enjoyable, but rough. The shorter length (about 30 hours) for this type of game could be a benefit or bane depending on what you're after. It was worth A2.50 that it cost on sale.

XCom : Enemy Unknown (2012)

Great game. Though it's not nearly as deep as the original, what you get in consolation is an incredible spectacle, awesome action shots, wonderfully crafted levels and a little greater mission variety. Still, the game feels very streamlined and simplified, so playing with the Enemy Within DLC is recommended to add some more variety. Then I feel the sacrifice in depth would be far more worth it.

The only real gripe I have is that, similar to Xenonauts, cover only gives a percentage chance of not being hit in a way that isn't always realistic. The original does it best: if a projectile reaches an obstacle it destroy or damage it first. So the only way to hit someone behind cover is to, first pass an accuracy check to aim for the target's hitbox, and then secondly to hope that the bullet heads for the part of the hitbox exposed above the cover. If it doesn't it hits the cover.
In Xenonauts and EU this doesn't happen, and you only have to pass an accuracy check to hit. It kind of works the same way still, because there's still a chance to hit the cover and damage/destroy it. But as far as I could tell it often fails to properly take into account angles: If you are crouched behind a low wall on a rooftop, only a very small part of your body will stick out for someone one level lower. So it should be very difficult to be hit in such a position before destroying the cover first. This afair is reflected in the original, but I noticed it failed spectacularly to happen in Xenonauts. I would be crouched behind a low wall on the roof of 2 storey building, but because the alien was right below on ground level the game gives the alien a very high chance to hit because of the close vicinity. EU has this same problem, and in the action shots you often see it explicitly as the plasma shots travel through walls to hit someone at close range.

The only other gripe, compared to the original and xenonauts especially, is that the writing and dialogue aren't good. Autopsies and all other flavour text in Xenonauts made for great reading, but I quickly stopped reading the corresponding stuff in EU.

My ultimate game in this genre would be some mix between EU and Xenonauts, but as it stands, both are great takes on the formula in their own right. Just different without one being clearly better than the other.

Bio Menace - 3/5

My third time playing this. I'll admit that it's a pretty middling game, but it does hit that nostalgic 'comfort food' spot for me.

I don't really know how much I'd recommend other people play it. But if you do play it, don't put it on the hardest difficulty. Last time I played it on Normal, so I thought this time, I'd ramp up the difficulty - this was a mistake. Hard mode isn't hard in a challenging and fun way. It's hard in a you-die-in-two-hits-and-there's-a-bunch-of-enemies-that-can-shoot-you-from-offscreen way.

Great game, in comparison with similar games as Duke Nukem more mature with bigger possibilities. As you said, the hardest difficulty is only for masochists... ;)

Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader

First, thanks again to Gnostic for donating the game and mrkgnao for nominating me 4.5 years ago. Finally got around to starting this in March and finished it today (or yesterday, since it's past 4 AM here now). The timer on the last save, made at the start of the final battle, was 4 d 23:39, so add the duration of the battle and the ending cutscene and I'm thinking I got to a full 120h during the credits. But it seems it does actually count the actual time spent playing, so if you reload it doesn't restart from the time of that save, in which case it's quite possible I got to 120h while playing, since I finished that final battle on the 4th try, after finally figuring out how to keep the Lightning WarGolem alive (er, not destroyed?) too, not wanting to let anyone I had taken with me that far bite it.

Now I have a list of notes that I just checked and has 920 words. Will make for another huge review if I will turn it into one, but depends. Tend to say I'll try to review any game I finish that has less than 3 reviews on MobyGames (since that's where I post them, other than on my blog) and generally won't bother with those that have more than 3 (unless those that exist are really bad I guess), but this has exactly 3, so... Let's see if I'll get myself to do it.

Very short version, not fond of SPECIAL, and a system requiring you to know exactly what you'll want to do with your character from creation and overspecialize is even trickier, but at least there's no level cap (I finished at 53, just hit 52 with the exp received at the start of the final battle, so got another free level by using Here and Now then, since I hadn't taken my level 50 feat, seeing as at 53 I got another feat). And the real time combat is poorly implemented, not being RTwP and enemies being so fast, and companions are really just tacked on, often more frustrating than anything else. But a pretty nice job with the setting, at least halfway through, and the Montaillou Crypt is a nice, complex dungeon. Plenty of nuisances otherwise though, in every way, and rather took issue with the Inquisition and the Spanish as led by them portrayed as after all the good guys (albeit... overzealous) and the implication of Druids/Pagans as evil (and going on a build maxing Divine Fortitude and Smite would have made Inquisition as the choice of guild for my char too, but no way, Wielders no matter what!). Other than that, yes, it does get tedious after a point, and the desert is just lazy design, and being sandwiched between two dungeons that are so and so, it'd have needed to be refreshing instead... Still, a decent enough game, with a pretty good first part and a second part that's serviceable, if at times overstaying its welcome.

The Last Of Us 2
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Fire Emblem: Three Houses side story

Now conquering Maddening difficulty in new game +

Flat Kingdom, July 15 (Itch)-An upbeat, feel good platformer. The game is a little short and a little easy but the graphics, music, and gameplay make up for it. I did have a little trouble on some enemies especially bosses where I would do the right move but it was delayed or didn't register so I'd try something else and end up losing quite a bit of health before it worked.

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Beat Master of Orion 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for the zillionth time since the late 90s if that counts.

inFamous 2 (PS3)

Not a very good game in the end. At least it runs a bit better than the first game, which shows Sucker Punch getting to grips with the PS3 more. But it still felt weird to control, very hard to do simple things like run in a straight line and just simply jump forward onto a ladder. Aiming is still very twitchy.
Then the world was crappy as well. Not so much the graphics which were okay for the time, though seemingly no AA at all on anything. The world design was dull and didn't lend itself to the game play style at all, super powered traversal. The second area especially, a sunken suburb was unbelievably tedious. As were most of the missions after the first areas as well. And the enemies, I hope you enjoy fighting the same three types of sub-boss over and over- every one of them the same type of gimmick boss where you wait for the weak points to expose so you can hit them.

Near end there wasn't much fun left and I was just wishing it would actually come to an end. I think it was substantially inferior to the first game and Second Son well, at least Second Son runs smoothly and has a good city to play in. I wasn't surprised to check some reviews after I finished and find that most critics loved it. Sony games you see, even my standard rule of thumb of subtracting 10% from the metacritic for all Sony games still leaves this at 73% which is too high. Sucker Punch just released Ghosts of Tsushima which I expect to like a lot more- being pretty much Assassin's Creed Japan. As for inFamous I think Sony should hand it over to Insomniac to continue...or even better drop inFamous and make Sunset Overdrive 2 instead.

Entry 12: Thief Gold(Stealth, Win10-64 Bit, GOG)

A great stealth looting and combat game and a must play classic for fans of the genre. Very good in many respects, not so good in others. I finally finished it after having to come back to it over and over again(either due to data losses over the years or not being able to fully get through one particular map which is VERY confusing)...and while the ending was a bit lackluster, I still had fun with it.

Pros

Mostly nice levels, a fun protagonist, interesting enough plot, nice cutscenes.

Cons + Nitpicks

Some larger and confusing levels(which is compounded by not having a decent map on some of them), so so ending "boss".

Notes

TFix is recommended to add some cut dialog and fix any remaining bugs here and there.

Overall i'd give it an 8/10....very good in many ways(though I like Thief 2 a bit more due to plot and some levels).

(Full/main game list in Post 21)
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It does....and ONLY a zillion times? I must have played SS2 at least twice that by now. ;)