include me plz, ty

Big plans for '25! If everything goes according to plan this year imma gonna finish both DA:Veilguard and Starfield! Probably the Bat trilogy, maybe the complete DA trilogy and also maybe the ME-Remastered Trilogy.

GL and good health to any and everyone!

Previous years

-2021-
-2022-
-2023-
-2024-

System

cpu -10900KF
motherboard - msi meg z590 ace
ram - 64 gb ddr4 3200mhz
gpu - aorus 3090Ti
storage - 2x m2 samsung 2+1tb 1x seagate 4tb
soundcard - creative soundblaster ae-7
peripherals - logitech G
Monitor - sony inzone m3 1080p 240hz
xbox controller

FPS
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition (Review)
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Unreal Gold: Return to Na Pali (Review)
AMID EVIL - The Black Labyrinth DLC (Review)
Calcium Contract (Review)
LAB (Original Flash version and V3)

(Action-)RPGs
Hogwarts Legacy (Review)
Ocean's Heart (Review)
Sir Whoopass: Immortal Death (Review)
The Keep
Doom of Icewind Dale (NWN:EE, Review)
An Ancient Heart (NWN:EE, co-op)
An Ancient Heart II: The Shattering of Peace (NWN:EE, co-op)
Temple, Tower, and Tomb (NWN:EE, co-op)

Adventure Games and Narrative Experiments
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit (Review)
RÖKI (Review)
Closer The Distance
Draugen (Review)
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
Some Goodbyes We Made (Review)
We Should Talk
Doodle Date
THIF

Platformer & Misc
Planet of Lana (Review)
A Juggler's Tale (Review)
Jusant (Review)
Tchia
Dungeons of Hinterberg
Little Kitty, Big City (Review)
Rain On Your Parade + DLC
Just Crow Things
Leaf Blower Man: This Game Blows!
Re:Fresh
Dice & Fold
Wattam

-> 2024
-> 2023
-> 2022
-> 2021
-> 2020
-> 2019
-> 2018
-> 2017
-> 2016
-> 2015
-> 2014
-> 2013
-> 2012
-> 2011 (direct link to my post 1004 seems to be broken, but this is close enough)

January 1st, 2025
Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet

February 1st, 2025
The Plucky Squire

February 15th, 2025
Slender Threads

February 20th, 2025
Creatures of Ava

February 24th, 2025
The Journey Down: Chapter One

April 10th, 2025
Elroy and the Aliens

April 30th, 2025
Old Skies

June 6th, 2025
Revenge of the Savage Planet

August 23rd, 2025
Final Fantasy IX (PS4)

January:

Shadowhand
Janosik
New Super Mario Bros.
Ape Out
FEAR
Questprobe Featuring the Hulk
Tunic
A Short Hike
Soldier of Fortune

February:

Condemned: Criminal Origins
The Plucky Squire
Turbo Overkill
Mystery House
Rayman Origins

March:

Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition
System Shock (remake)
Untitled Goose Game
Shadow Man Remastered
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Secret of Monkey Island (ultimate talkie edition)

April:

Ultima II
Ultima III
Monkey Island 2
Return to Monkey Island

May:

Yakuza 5
I, Robot
Faith

June:

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun
Killing Time: Resurrected

July:

System Shock 2 Remastered
Yakuza 6

August:

Blake Stone: Planet Strike
Ys V

September:

Ys VI
XIII
Ys: Oath in Felghana

October:

Gravity Bone

Ocean's Heart

First game of the year, even though I played most of it in 2024 still. Pretty nice Oldschool-Zelda-like. I bought it rather spontaneously a few days ago at a discount, tried it, got hooked and was kept busy by it until it was over. It was longer than expected (HLTB said 10-13h, I spent about 20 with the game) but I hardly ever thought about the length and always just wanted to see what's around the next corner. So that's a positive. It was a perfect game to play on my laptop, with only keyboard controls. Cute pixel art graphics, good music, lots of side quests, quite a few amusing ideas in the writing, the story was just enough for me to stay interested without getting distracted from all the free exploration and side questing, perfect for such a (semi) open world game.

The difficulty was very easy, in general, particularly in the final parts, after fully upgrading the weapons, when spamming basic attacks was often enough to win before health even got a chance to drop close to 0. It was a bit of a missed opportunity, I guess, that you get the major part of your special attacks only late in the game and that you can only ever assign two of them to your quick use keys. So I didn't even make an effort to fight with much variety. But for someone like me who hates bosses with patterns, I loved that I could just ignore them and brute force my way through combat. So others might find this more problematic, but for me it was another positive. It made sure that I could concentrate on exploration and puzzles without getting frustrated by combat too much (especially considering that opponents usually respawn when you re-enter an area). I also liked the addition of more modern features like quest journal and fast traveling points.

That being said, some things could have been more user-friendly. The overland map was pretty rudimentary and not that much of a help. No clear indications on how to get to anywhere, several of the named areas in the game did not even appear on the map, and there were no smaller maps of towns and such. You just have to memorize where every shop and NPC is located. There were also a lot of interesting things mentioned by NPCs or points of interest to discover in the world without the journal making note of it, so you still need pen and paper or a good memory to keep track of it all, even more so considering how big the world is and how confusing it can be to navigate through it and that you can't access some parts or solve some puzzles before gaining specific items or abilities. All that is very oldschool, and I while I appreciated all the little secrets to find, I wouldn't have minded some help in remembering them all, at least something like custom map pins or an in-game text editor for note writing or something.

It was also a bit inconvenient that items in the inventory did not come with descriptions. You only ever learn what spells, potions, and other consumables do when you find them in the world - not even when you craft something. And resources you gather don't even have names in the inventory, and I think they do not have any in the crafting menu either ... Plus, the difficulty and economy in the game was such that I collected a lot of consumables and resources but hardly ever did something with them, because I just didn't have to. I ended the game with much more money than I could possibly spend for useful items, as well.

I found it curious that you have to save the game manually, even though there's only one saveslot. On occasion that allowed me to go back a few steps and repeat dialogue I accidentally missed or avoid wasting consumables for nothing - one time I even got stuck on a glitch and quitting without saving literally saved me. But still, it was odd to have to go into the menu and save so often, rather than the game autosaving for me, when you don't even get different slots. Why not give players a quicksave button instead, at least?

And speaking of buttons, the game never explained how to assign abilities for quick use (you have to go to the inventory, select the ability and press X or V). It also never explained that while water and pits are hazardous for your character, you can hop over small gaps. For a while I didn't even realize these were passable. I also thought it was annoying when levers I had already pulled and obstacles that I had already overcome would reset at times, while doors usually stayed open. It didn't always seem consistent.

Still, these are all smaller nitpicks seeing how much I was entertained by the game. So all in all I give it a thumb's up.

2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024

1. The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav - GOG - January 1, 2025
2. 1428: Shadows over Silesia + Tourney at the Bear Rock - GOG - January 4, 2025
3. Hanoi Puzzles: Solid Match - GOG - January 31, 2025
4. Matsuro Palette - GOG - February 4, 2025
5. Murder Is Game Over: The Blackinton Curse - GOG - February 11, 2025
6. Starlight Legacy - GOG - February 20, 2025
7. Submachine: Legacy - GOG - April 30, 2025
8. Wizordum - GOG - May 8, 2025
9. Crow Country - GOG - May 10, 2025
10. Tails of Iron - Complete Edition - GOG - May 13, 2025
11. Slice of Sea - GOG - May 18, 2025
12. Drova - Forsaken Kin - GOG - May 31, 2025
13. Together We Live - GOG - June 1, 2025
14. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore - GOG - June 3, 2025
15. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning + Fatesworn DLC - GOG - June 20, 2025
16. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - GOG - June 27, 2025
17. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition - GOG - July 5, 2025
18. Mothmen 1966 - GOG - July 6, 2025
19. Varney Lake - GOG - July 7, 2025
20. Bahnsen Knights - GOG - July 8, 2025
21. A Shelter Full of Cats - GOG - August 18, 2025
22. Dungeons of Dreadrock - GOG - August 21, 2025
23. True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 3 - GOG - August 23, 2025
24. An Arcade Full of Cats - Complete Edition - GOG - September 5, 2025
25. A Park Full of Cats - Complete Edition - GOG - September 6, 2025
26. A Building Full of Cats 2 - GOG - September 8, 2025
27. CLICKOLDING - GOG - September 16, 2025
28. Cat Quest III - GOG - September 19, 2025
29. Yes, Your Grace - GOG - September 21, 2025
30. Return of the Obra Dinn - GOG - September 23, 2025
31. Kyle is Famous: Complete Edition - GOG - September 24, 2025
32. THE SUPER SPY - GOG - September 25, 2025
33. TOP HUNTER: RODDY & CATHY - GOG - September 26, 2025
34. GHOST PILOTS - GOG - September 27, 2025
35. NINJA COMMANDO - GOG - September 28, 2025
36. ALPHA MISSION II - GOG - September 29, 2025
37. Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior - GOG - September 30, 2025
38. Ember - GOG - October 1, 2025
39. Armed and Dangerous - GOG - October 2, 2025
40. Picklock - GOG - October 4, 2025
41. Steamworld Heist - GOG - October 5, 2025

New Super Mario Bros U

How very odd that my brother and I happen to beat this game at this time. I mean, it's not an auspicious anniversary for it (I have had the game for eleven years) and I am in the middle of a Star Wars kick brought on by the Battlefront 3 Wii leak as well as working on Ryza 3 as my project game. However, it is the holiday season and we wanted to briefly play a multiplayer game so we did beat pretty much the penultimate castle and figured we would go to the end. That said, this game is not great for me and is still my least favorite NSMB game (certainly out of the games I have beaten.). I find the level design more often than not either bland, gimmicky, or frustrating and overall just not a great game in general. It is also far from bad and still looks very good even if Rayman Legends is the far superior title on the system for art direction. In all, just an odd game to ring the year in on the first day with.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker

Almost all of the levels were actually done back in 2017 and then a few more were done in 2020 but my gamepad's battery was basically shot from then on and I have gone through four after market batteries before I could find a good one that actually worked. Uh, other than that the game is good.

Wanderlust: Transsiberian (2020) (Linux)

I've completed Wanderlust: Travel Stories before, so I kind of knew what to expect. I liked the music and atmosphere of these games, but I think it's simply not enough gameplay here. However I was quite surprised that in this specific case the story is not-so-linear and you make some quite important decisions changing the travel. But still – it's just a lot of reading with some background pictures (not many of them, usually just a map of your trip is displayed).

The Feast (2022) (Linux/Wine)

It looks that it was removed from GOG store at some point (?).
Well, this one makes no sense to me. Even making a mini-game you should have some idea for it.

BROK the InvestiGator - Natal Tail, A New Christmas (2024) (Linux/Wine)

There is literally no gameplay here. I don't get it. You can complete the story with a single "go forward" button and I can't see any sense in this one, sorry.

Sclash (2023) (Linux/Wine)

This one I've dropped. I liked the setting, the music, not so much interested in the story. But I coudn't beat Izanagi, The First Samurai. It quickly become frustrating, especially that you need to hit time 5 times and you die after one mistake. The game is not rewarding enough to git gud try harder :)

List of all games completed in 2025.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (PC Game Pass)

This is one of those games where you really need to make sure that you're prepared for the experience before you begin. Know that you need to invest time and effort to get through this one. It's an excellent game though, but it seriously can test your patience and dick you around at times as well.

First of all, the game is around 158GB install size. For some reason the download speeds were miserable at the time I installed...then right before it finally finished the second big patch dropped and I had to download another 120GB again! I finished a couple of shorter games whilst waiting for this game to download and install. Then it crashed twice during the "compiling shaders" process. The good news is that despite the well-known compiling shaders issue, the remainder of the game (once it booted) was absolutely trouble free for me- no crashes in game play at all, and only the most minor of bugs (like dead bodies stuck through walls). So, the reports of the game being a buggy mess seem to be overrated based upon my 70 hours in the game.

I went with the Ward ending, mainly because I liked the Colonel as a straightforward honest soldier type of guy, even if the people around him weren't. I believe there are 4 endings aligned with different factions. I played the original game last year, and I recognized places and people from that game- I also have the feeling that if I had of played Call of Prypiat and Clear Sky then I would have recognized a lot more people and places.

It's a tough game- not just in traditional difficulty of enemies, but of the way it really tests your patience and endurance at times. A quest (main or side) will have you run several km back and forth and eventually have you end up right about where you started...all the while dodging ambushes and anomalies and coming across impassable cliffs that send you another km out of your way. After around 15 hours, I settled into my play style to minimize the annoyances. I tried to keep a light load to allow me to simple sprint away from encounters. I settled upon a combo of semi-auto shotgun for close work and a sniper rifle for scoped long range. Using high damage single shot weapons avoids the necessity of carrying shitloads of ammo for assault rifles- making it easier to travel light. That's the point of the zone and all of its trials and annoyances- it forces the player to find their own way of dealing with it all...you have to learn to live in the zone rather than just play it as a game.

As the game went on, I found myself doing less and less side quests. They take a long time, use up your ammo and wear your equipment. Plus, I was becoming impatient to see the main story line. In hindsight I feel this was not the way to play the game for its full benefit. In a few years I plan to buy the game on discount and replay for a full 100 hour plus all side quests experience. But for now, it was still quite an experience just the same.

August 16

I finished Marsupilami - Le Secret du Sarcophage. It was a really fun 2D platformer with some collectibles for each level, a challenge dojo for each level. Difficulty is on the easy side, except when you want those collectibles and challenges and the few last levels. Graphics are nice and colorful and the music enjoyable but a bit repetitive. The story is quite inexistant...

Full list here.

The Book of Bondmaids (Steam)

NSFW VN...very much a CYOA book or like one of those old Game Books- complete with choices that can end in instant death. I really enjoyed it actually, it has good artwork (drawn, not rendered) and an interesting idea with the actual concept of the Bondmaids themselves. I got the redemption ending, there are two others plus a secret ending- mostly based around your reputation from the game's choices. I plan to play it again to see at least one or two other endings, as it's quick once you can just skip through the parts you've already seen.

Endless Fables: The Minotaur's Curse (2016) (Linux)

Well, exactly the same as most of Artifex Mundi games. Just a casual HOPA. I've finished this one mostly by outsourcing the effort to my little daughter, who quite enjoyed it ;) The game is safe for kids and most of puzzles are 9-years old level :D

List of all games completed in 2025.