The Journeyman Project Turbo. I happened to watch the Timecop movie for the first time in like 20 years a few weeks ago and this is basically a Timecop game. When people try to change history, you have to go and fix it and then catch them. I'm not sure it entirely makes sense, but it's pretty cool. Also a bit of an interesting creative choice to make a time travel game that takes place almost entirely in the future (the only trip to the past is a very quick stop in dinosaur times), as the story is about someone trying to sabotage Earth's admittance to an alien government.

The game probably looked great in the early 90s, but it does look a bit ragged now. I'm not surprised the developers did the Pegasus Prime remake a couple of years later. But it's effective enough in presenting its setting, even if it's kind of strange to see so few other characters. The game suggests the presence of humanity through ambient crowd noise instead of seeing anyone. The story is mostly told to you through dialogue and bits you have to piece together from the areas you visit, so it does help to pay attention.

It's not very long, and it's really not as puzzle-heavy as stuff like Myst or the 7th Guest. Each area will have one straight on puzzle that needs to be worked through with some actual brainpower, although these aren't very hard, and then otherwise it's the usual adventure game approach in which you can work things out just by clicking on stuff and trying out items. I did get stuck for a bit when I realized I had failed to pick up some critical items in other settings and the game doesn't allow you to return to those areas after they're done (so much for time travel, I guess), so I had to restart to make sure I grabbed them in the brief window available. The sequels appear to be more refined.

Ehm...it could be the name of a great warrior, but in one of those films where the actors are naked most of the time.
Little SPOILER ahead.
Anyways, I just completed Distraint 2. I have been wanting to play it for a while and I took the occasion of it being on sale. It's a good continuation of the first episode, like, more of that. Simple puzzle, same style for the graphics and sounds, some walking simulator mechanics, some minigames that I didn't mind - literal puzzles, like sliding puzzle where you complete pictures. Slow paced, this time the situation is completely unreal and "psychological" from the beginning and all the other characters are parts of the personality of the protagonist. Dialogue lines are short and you can take your time to read before moving on. There's no autosave so you want to remember to stop at the save-spots. But you might even end the game in one session. 4 hours maybe? Being a cute, short game with a low price I can recomend it to anyone who enjoyed the first and wants more of the same and see again some old acquaintance.

Ha! Ha!, yeah, and a pretty tall warrior too, if their description was to match their name...

Maybe everyone has to kneel down in front of such a mighty warrior!

Lol, lucky warrior... 0.o

Next Vita game down: Gravity Rush. I was going for exclusives for now and only after buying this one for Vita did I discover / remember that there's actually remaster for PS4. And now I kinda regret that I went with the Vita version. But oh well, it IS one of the big Vita classics.

Gravity Rush surprised me in a ton of ways and frankly I think Sony chose a very bad title for this one. For years I assumed that it was just some frantic arcade slasher game or a fast-paced puzzle game - one of those "AAA indie games" that Sony likes to make. It is not. Gravity Rush is in fact pretty much a full-on sandbox game that reminded me a lot of (earlier) Assassin's Creed games or Infamous or Prototype. It's a bit smaller than those titles, there's fairly little stuff to do and the story is almost entirely told through unvoiced comic panels but it's really still the same kind of sandbox game.

So, the game tells the story of the amnesiac Kat, named so because she's accompanied by a cat. A cat that grants her the power to control gravity. She wakes up in a city in the sky called Hekseville that is surrounded by a deadly storm and is regularly attacked by monsters called Nevi. She's naturally goodhearted and instantly jumps to people's rescue but she's widely considered a troublemaker for the sole fact that she's different. She's also just a young insecure and self-conscious girl that wants to find a place for herself in this weirdly beautiful city - the first thing you do in the game is actually build her a home in the sewers, depending on furniture that others just want to throw away. And of course, over time, she gets sucked into a this world's biggest problems and learns bits and pieces about her origin. It's a fairly typical superhero story mixed with all sorts of Japanese weirdness. And I loved it. Kat is one of the most lovable protagonists I have seen in a video game and Hekseville is a beautiful place to be in. The game is really enjoyable for the story and atmosphere alone, although the story does get a bit too weird later on and I guess you have to play the sequel on PS4 to get the full picture.

Gameplay-wise it's pretty much your standard sandbox video game: you go from marker to marker to do story missions, collect diamonds that allow you to improve Kat's skills - additionally you can rebuild parts of the city, which unlocks basic challenge missions (races, killing X enemies in a certain amount of time etc.) through which you can earn even more diamonds. The big twist is of course the gravity thing. You can let Kat fall in any direction or have her walk on walls. I guess most of the time you will also use this "falling" to attack enemies, although you can also throw stuff at them or just land and kick them in their face (which they often don't have). On one hand it seems pretty interesting and novel but the thing is that you only really control Kat's "gravity" but not anything else's so basically it's just a game about a girl who can fly - with controls that are made a bit unnecessarily awkward because the game insists that you control gravity. The thing is that you can't fluidly control where she goes - you always have to come to a full stop, look around, and then let her fall again. It's a somewhat awkward procedure that makes the game a tad less enjoyable than if you could just control her like in any action game where you control a flying character or machine. Especially as Kat grows stronger and can stay suspended in the air for a really long amount of time you will lose any notion that it's about "controlling gravity".

Buuut... even then it's still a cute sandbox game about a girl who can fly and that still makes the game stand out among other sandbox games and fun to play. The controls make some things a bit awkward - for instance you always have to hit monsters in their weak-spots and that's sometimes a bit hard to achieve with you having to come to a stop and aim carefully while the monsters just keep jumping happily around - but it's not that big of an issue. Some monsters are intentionally hard to defeat with "gravity kicks" and you just should resort to throwing stuff or super attacks that you unlock over time. And honestly, even with the control issues (that were also a common point of criticism in reviews) the game is pretty darn easy. I think the only time I actually died was during an optional fight that you should apparently revisit much later.

Either way: I enjoyed the hell out of this little sandbox game. It's refreshingly different and it's the kind of sweet world and story that you'd normally only find in JRPGs (which I honestly don't like much) in a format that's a lot more digestible to players with my kind of sensitivities. I think I'm getting the DLC now (for which I don't have high expectations) and am really looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds and the gameplay was extended in the seuqel.


Update
Okay, now I've also bought and finished all three DLC packs. I guess each one of them has maybe 30-40 minutes of content in the form of two additional story missions. Each pack revolves around a new costume and comes with fitting missions. I.e. the Maid Pack introduces a small side story about when Kat made some money as a maid, the Special Forces pack adds a few missions where Kat joins the city's military force and the Spy Pack... basically adds a Cat Woman costume for when she went undercover which doesn't make much sense to be honest.

Frankly I think it's one of the best ways I've seen DLC integrated into a sandbox game. If you play the game normally with all DLC installed, the missions unlock at the right moment in the story and are balanced accordingly. But in case you only play it after beating the main game: the missions start with a brief flashback text that tells you when it happened in the context of the main story. I'm frankly impressed by this. I don't think that the missions themselves are all that great but they aren't bad either and the last DLC mission is probably the hardest mission in the entire game. Most importantly they add fairly plausible side plots that extend the base game's character building a bit. It's neat! And as a reward you get the costumes of course and there's also more of those optional challenges here which should make it easier to farm those gems that you need for upgrades. Not bad!

Just a few minutes ago, I just finished Darkest Dungeon and The Crimson Court DLC. It's a hell of a game. I never thought I could finish it because it was rough. I almost gave up but the game is addicting. It is unfair at times but very rewarding when you manage to clear a dungeon or kill a boss. I'm not a big fan of turn based RPG but I'm eagerly awaiting for the sequel.

I've just finished Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (OG Xbox)
It's like Crash 3, just more gimmicky and worse for that. Where crash 3 had a few different levels to break things up, Wraith of Cortex has gimmicky levels as every other level. The trouble is - it introduces the mechanic and then tosses it out of the window. Oh and, not a jetpack, honest, controls are bloody awful.

No Delivery, Sept 6 (Itch)-A creepy mix of Five Nights at Freddy's and Earthbound. The humor and horror play off each other in a well written game. There's a bit of a learning curve at the beginning but after that its probably a little too easy until the very end encounters. I actually had to play it twice. I got through about 75% of the game in a little over four hours when my computer crashed and I lost the save. Replaying after knowing what to do and where to go I was able to complete it with multiple endings in a little under 4 hours. Would have liked a little bit of character development/leveling. As it is the only development is through items found or purchased. Also a map would have helped. There were many areas that looked similar and it was easy to forget where to go. Still one of the best indie offerings I've played this year.

Full List

Yesterday, I've finished my second playthrough on New Game+ in Dark Souls II on my PS3. This time, because I knew most of the traps and also the bossfights, it took me only 292 deaths :P . The biggest issue to finishing the game was to my surprise Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin. The randomness of the fight, me being tired and triggerhappy meant, I needed for him 13 attempts. Not even Ancient Dragon made me so much troubles this time :'( .

All my games finished in 2020 can be found >>>here<<<

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard (XB1X)

For me this is easily the best Resident Evil now. A huge turnaround from Resi 6 which was the worst in the series by far. Resi 7 is a welcome return to the creepy mansion style of the first game. It looks excellent and runs at 4K60. The move to first person is welcome as far as I'm concerned, much more immersive. For most of the game it feels like a series reboot, its own thing, but near the end the ties to the series become more evident. Overall the game has outstanding mood and tension and manages a great feeling of tension without using respawning enemies at any point- something I hate in limited ammo games.
Yet, despite what seems like some major changes to the series it still feels like the earlier classic games. You still have limited ammo. Your character still runs like they have two broken legs. Your character still never checks to see if anything is really dead, just so it can get back up later.

Tell Me Why (XB1X)

Wasn't going to play this as I have no interest in playing as a Tranny. But I don't judge games until I've played them. Oh yeah I don't care what's correct protocol in your part of the world for naming things. In my country a Postman is a postie, a service station is a servo, footbal is footie and a transgender is a tranny. It's how we are, you do it in your country however you like.
Here's the thing about Tell Me Why, if you like the game play and stories of other Dontnod games (Life is Strange series) then you will also like this. It's the same type of thing done to the same quality. But did I like the Tranny? No, I thought he was an asshole mostly. Grows up in a small Alaskan town as a girl. Comes back ten years later as a guy and seems to take offense that people don't understand him or feel uncomfortable. But seeing some one you knew turn up someday as a different gender seems a bit out of ordinary to me...the reaction of the townspeople seemed quite reasonable- they weren't trying to beat him up or shun him or any such thing. When you're part of such a tiny minority of people, why would you seriously expect people to go out of their way to understand something that makes no difference to them?
So one of the two main characters I did not like. I also did not like having to fend off the advances of the local town homosexual, not just once...that dude did not want to take no for an answer.

Here's the annoying thing, it made no difference to the story. You could replace the transgender with an ordinary brother...or sister for that matter, and the story would have been the same. It's just something they added on top, so just feels like someone fishing for some type of PC points in today's political climate. Transgener represented...tick! Homosexual represented...tick! All bad people white male...tick! They ticked all the boxes. If I was in one of those groups I don't know how I'd feel about being used as some sort of political pawns. Just go back to making games as entertainment.

Having run out of "big" Vita games to play for now I've turned to some of the indie games that I've received for the Vita from PS Plus over the years. The most promising one seemed to be Hue, so I beat that one.

At first glance Hue looks like Limbo with colours and that's actually kinda what it is but much more basic. It's frankly just another puzzle platformer. I figured that this one could be really interesting since its puzzles seemingly revolve around colours - I thought that perhaps the puzzles here would need the player to understand something particular to colours, making it a unique and even educational experience. It is not. The entire mechanic is simply about making groups of objects disappear. You can set the background colour and all objects of the same colour disappear. That's it. The fact that the game comes with a colourblind mode kinda proves the point that this game is not at all about colours. I still can't believe that the mechanic does not even involve filtering and blending. So much wasted potential!

But don't get me wrong, the gameplay isn't bad. They managed to create quite an interesting and diverse set of challenges here and some of the later puzzles are quite the brain teasers although they aren't THAT hard and I never got stuck for long. The most annoying thing is that the devs decided to include a few rooms that require the player to change colours very quickly and the controls aren't suitable for it. You pick a colour from a radial menu by pointing in a direction and then releasing the stick - I can't emphasise enough how wrong that is. It is practically impossible to release a stick without changing its angle a bit, so far too often I died because the colour just changed from what I was trying to pick. To think that all it would have taken to fix this is to confirm colours by pressing a shoulder button. And while the radial menu is open the game only slows down instead of coming to a halt which, I felt, was inappropriate for a mostly serene puzzle game.

SPOILERS
There's also a story told through audio logs here, namely letters from Hue's mother. I was hopeful that there would a valuable message to the game but there really isn't. In a black and white world Hue's mother is a researcher who dedicated her life to colours and got so obsessed with them that she neglected her son - and during the game Hue starts seeing colours the same way she did, gaining the aforementioned ability to alter the world. For a while I suspected that all this "seeing colours" and "seeing the world how it really is" would turn out to be a dark metaphor for drug addiction - that it would turn out that his mum actually experimented with drugs, all her pretentious fortune cookie talk would turn out to be bullshit excuses for taking drugs and Hue also got into drugs due to his irresponsible junkie mother. It would also be more in line with how nonsensical the core mechanic really is.

In the end you find a letter from her colleague who cut her off from "the ring" that allowed her to see all those colours and I was already thinking "ho ho, okay, here it comes!". And then the letter says "but I was wrong - she knew what she was doing". And just like that the story turned out to be shit.

Hilariously you keep meeting a cloaked silent figure throughout the game - dude looks like a druid or something. He keeps watching you, perhaps he guides you? But he just stands by as you die over and over. WHO COULD THAT BE?! So in the end you finally catch up with him and he dramatically removes the robe to reveal that he is in fact... *gasp* your mother's colleague who cosplayed a druid for no reason whatsoever. The heck is wrong with all the adults in this game?!

So, the only messages here are generic new age crap about what is real, colours being pretty and that Hue should forgive his mother for being such a shitty parent because colours are indeed pretty. Sigh.
SPOILERS END

So, the story's bullshit, the mechanics are not actually about colours and from a game whose characters are obsessed with the beauty of colours I would have expected that the game at least tries to convey that very beauty - which it doesn't. It's not a bad game, it is a pretty competently made puzzle platformer that is quite satisfying to play. But from an artistic standpoint it's pretty much worthless. Slapping on sad piano music does not make it a brilliant piece of art.

Oxenfree

Short but sweet. Great voice acting, awesome narrative, and unique mystery.
Multiple ending available, but the second and next playthrough can be considered as a continuation of the story.