I finished the utterly amazing Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. The prequel of all Homeworld games. 13 missions, which I would guess took me around 20-25 h. A strategy game that looks more like the tactical strategy genre (no base building, you are constantly on the move), than the normal strategy genre. Of course, this makes sense in the overall story of having a carrier, which you must get to a specific place on your planet.
Also, the carrier can’t be placed at one spot for the entirety of each mission, but it has to be moving around. That’s because the resources are very scattered on each map (no one spot with too much of it), which makes you to have to constantly move around the map with your units, and the carrier has to be near too, as if it gets destroyed, it’s game over!
Another thing to praise is the sound. You will be listening to every person (inside his/her unit), as if you hear them through radio communication, which I really never found tiresome to be hearing! On the contrary, I was feeling I was "along with them" too!
The resources you collect, as well as the upgrades you perform, and the units you create, all follow up through the next missions.

What more to say? 3 difficulty levels. I played it on normal and, while they were some tense moments (as expected), nothing "cheaty" from the game. With a different approach, all can be done!

Sea of Stars Throes of the Watchmaker DLC, Aug 11 (Xbox Game Pass)-Its a good expansion. The difficulty is a little high because none of your skills or equipment are brought over from the main game and you have to relearn all the enemy moves. I didn't like it as much as the main game probably because some much time had passed and I wasn't as invested in the characters anymore. Also, no Garl was a disappointment. The puzzles were generally pretty good though.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PC Game Pass)

The French managed to out Final Fantasy Final Fantasy. It's better than any FF I've played by a long shot...though I've never been the biggest fan of FF anyway- I much prefer the Atlus way of doing JRPG's anyway.

I'll get the only thing that actually irritated me about Expedition 33 out of the way first- I seriously think they dragged out the ending scenes way past their welcome point. The final 3 hours the player has now worked everything out with what is going on, then the characters just talk round and around in circles saying pretty much the same thing for two hours of cutscenes. I think they could have trimmed the ending scenes down to just 30 minutes and lost nothing! I seriously starting to wish, in the end, that the characters would finally get to the point and just end it already.

Otherwise the game is a masterpiece. I never tired of the combat system and it never dropped too much new things onto me like so many Japanese Final Fantasy style games. Also the story was so much better, even though I worked out what was going on quite early.

The voice acting, the characters and the music are all hard to fault. As well as that, the game runs and look awesome as well- though it does have steep system requirements if you want to run it at maximum settings. Anyway, this is one of the best new games since Lies of P came out a few years ago. This one goes onto my Game Pass curated "buy later on deep sale list".

Broken Sword 5- The Serpent's Curse (XSX)

Played the Xbox version since I have access to it as a GwG titles from a few years ago. This game is much improved over the 4th game, so instead of being actually bad, this time I just found it dull and with the usual illogical puzzles. Well, I suppose the puzzles were logical in the Broken Sword sense.

One thing this game has going for it is the art which is generally really nice all the way through. The voice work was okay as well. Everything else was just middle of the road.

So that's the Broken Sword series. A series consisting of one decent game (the first one), two middle of the road games (2 and 5), one average game with terrible controls (3) and one bad game (4). In my opinion a lackluster series overall. Far from the likes of my favorite games in the genre like Gabriel Knight, Gray Matter, Black Dahlia- to be fair the point and click genre is one I find difficult to get into these days.

Tharsis

I got my GOG copy via GOG Connect back in 2018 (rip GOG Connect). Seems like yesterday.

This is a game where you micromanaging your way to ensure your ship's safety in a mission to Mars by rolling dices. The number of dice and food is really the most important thing. The ship's hull and crew's health are second. Cannibalism are expected but could be avoided. And there are steep consequences if you choose that way. The crews got their own perks and the ship's module have different functions.

I only finished the 10 missions and the basic game in easy difficulty. The normal difficulty is too punishing for me where dumb luck and a single mistake could wash away a session. Not really what I consider as fun in my eyes. Perhaps this is more a game for people that like board games and their adaptations. I try to persevere but I had enough and just happy with what I could get. I tag it as Completed in my library and move on to other games.

Tex Murphy- Mean Streets (Steam)

Decided to play this series since I like investigative adventure games. I know that the series only got good from the third game...but I decided to play the first two games anyway, even if it's with copious use of a guide, just for historical interest.

Mean Streets is clunky as hell, though most games were in 1989. I always used the autopilot which erases some of the worst issues of this game. I also set the arcade shooting segments to easy, with a bit of practice I was able to manage those. The only adjustment I made to DOSBOX was the usual- set the aspect ratio to true so as to maintain correct ratio, apparently most people prefer to stretch the display. Also dropped the cycles late in the game to get past the robot scene as it moved way too fast.

Once all of the above matters were taken care of, it was a surprisingly good investigation game. If this game is the first and worst of the series, then it bodes well for the other games as I get to them.

Chasm : The Rift

I got this one from Prime Gaming. After tackling Tharsis I wanted to play a shorter game and this one fits the bill. Also some FPS wouldn't hurt because I haven't finished one of those in quite a while. I believe Call of Juarez: Gunslinger was the last one

This is of course a re-release of the original 1997 game. More of a corridor FPS with narrow lanes and minimal area movement. The monsters are well designed with dismembered limbs and decapitation are nicely detailed. The weapons are pretty basic but the no-reload features made for quick and snappy gameplay. Color-coded keys and secret areas are reminders of games of that era.

I find that this is a game on the easier side. None of the grunts are strong. The placements are predictable and the ai are dumb as hell. This make hide-and-seek gameplay for me with no sweat at all. But I do appreciate the level boss design. The game making them all invincible for bullets to make the player thinking about environmental hazard or other way to kill them other than decreasing hp with weapons. Some are easier to get than other of course, I admit that I looked at some video play-through to see how to deal the first level boss. Now the level design while simplistic made me lost at times. Twice I look at video guides, stuck at the underground tomb searching for hidden moving doors also looking where the hell is the Priest hid his key at the 2nd level (it was on a small corridor that I miss)

This is not the greatest game of the 90s but I appreciate how a group of college students in Ukraine at the time decide to make a game and then manage to produce a solid one. Kudos to SNEG making them available in modern system

Assassin's Creed Mirage (XSX Game Pass)

Worst AC game so far. The world is nice and some of the historical reading is interesting. Everything else is just a downgrade on every AC that came before.

The combat is the worst. The timing for countering is weird and there are no invincible frames, plus you cannot cancel any of the attacks with their long-winded animations. So, when fighting a group, you will get stuck in some attack animation and then get slammed by two or three enemies before the animation ends! It takes only two or three hits to die. So, the only way to fight groups is to cheese things like smoke bombs. Okay, they were trying to get people to use stealth...that's great, but the story forces scripted combat often. Combine that with the fact that, apparently, Baghdad had almost as many guards as civilians in those days- making them hard to avoid.

I always look forward to a bit of relaxing exploration and collecting when getting my yearly AC fix. Unfortunately, my issue with AC Valhalla is back- every chest or item is locked behind barred and locked doors and requires you to solve the same boring tedious puzzle every time... find the perfect spot where you can throw a knife through some crack to break the bar holding the door. It's okay the first 5 times...tolerable the first 10 times but by the time you've done it 30 times you've had enough.

It's also the most glitchy traversal I've encountered in the series- you get caught on things way too often, sometimes in the middle of an assassination animation...where the enemy then runs up and gets a free hit and your stealth is blown!

Overall, it's just an adequate game, all the changes they've made to the formula seem to be for the worse. Ubisoft is that proverbial ship without a rudder. AC Shadows is the first AC game ever that I have no plans to ever play.

FATE

After finishing Chasm I think it's time to tackle another game from Prime. I choose FATE for nostalgia sake as I've already played them some 20 odds years ago. I wonder what my young self would say if I told them I would finally get a legit DRM free copy of this game and replay it. I imagine young me will be happy that Indonesian could play game in affordable way without resorting to piracy.

FATE itself is a hack-and-slash game without any fat in it. Just kill monsters, loot and sell stuff, gamble, enchant, and level up. The fact that there are no class in it means you can build all your character to your liking without any limitations.

I really like the dungeon size. Every level is not too big making clearing them not really feels like a chore. Unlike Torchlight maps that can span too long especially near the end game. And speaking of Torchlight while it is the better game with more optimization, I find myself enjoying playing FATE more.

I already have all 3 other games in the series. Already installed Undiscovered Realm and the save game imports is working flawlessly. But I think I played it later, just to minimize the fatigue factor. For Cursed King and Traitor Soul I perhaps will build a ranged or magic build.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters (Steam)

Something of a classic, I played it previously on PS4 as a monthly PS Plus game many years ago. It's a great idea for a game; you play as though you're the main characters in a 50's B-grade Sci-Fi movie with amusing director commentary over the top as a running narrator. It plays as a simple twin stick shooter with lots of platforming as you climb a huge tower. The graphics are awesome with the view distance allowing you to look way down from the top of the tower near the end and still see where you were down on the ground. It took me 6.5 hours and is mostly easy but with a few spikes in difficulty. It's on GOG as well.

Attack of the Earthlings

Finished this one Yesterday, I must say that the stealth turn based strategy with an emphasis on melee is an underused and somewhat niche genre, especially one where you play as the aliens against the humans.

Despite begin an xenomorphesque species you are not exactly the 'bad guy' as the humans are, firstly the invasive species and secondly have a Outer Worlds style corporate banal evil vibe going on, which is where most of the humour arises. The humour itself is a little 'written by a German person' feeling but, generally, lands better than Borderlands, however much THAT's saying, I quite liked the way the corporation was called Galactoil which could be read like Galact Oil or Galac Toil - that was quite subtle and clever.

I found the game quite forgiving in many ways, it clearly lets you know how many action points you are going to be spending and whether or not you are going to stray into anyone's vision cone, for example, the difficulty was about right too - hard enough to make you feel clever for pulling the assassinations off without losing a unit but never tough enough to make you feel stuck or overwhelmed or that you were going to rage quit

It could have probably done with an 'undo' button though - I would have saved less obsessively often and had to sit through the same, unskippable cutscene speeches a few less times if it had had one

At just 7 level the game is a little short but also doesn't out stay it's welcome and there are some interesting achievement challenges to go back for, for a little more replayability

Overall an enjoyable and recommended third tier release

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Under Pressure

..and now I've just beaten the card game Under Pressure as both Diver and Kraken, as there are no further game modes or difficulty levels I'll call that completed.

It's a adaptation as physical card game called, unsurprisingly enough, 'Diver Vs. Kraken, which, itself is a reskin of a card game called 'Fugitive', the instructions to Fugitive are here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GzGd9ekb38rxpj47YhAk0JHlNzXeI3LYYUq3ThgzPnU/edit?tab=t.0

and, yes I had to do all that research before I was able to beat the game as the Kraken! (I somehow managed to muddle through and win as diver before I properly understood what I was doing!)

So.. it could probably do with more in-game instructions! VERY Brief experience too, but, hey, nicely presented and what do you expect for free, I guess!

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Continuing my run through the Legacy of Kain series, I beat Blood Omen 2 a couple of days ago, specifically the PS2 version on PS5.

This one is famously considered the black sheep of the series. It's immediately obvious that BO2 is unambitious compared to all other entries in the series but I never quite got the hate that it got from LoK fans. And now that I have beaten the two Soul Reaver games I just wanna say: the Soul Reaver fandom is a bunch of pretentious fucks.

Yes, BO2 is a simple and repetitive 3D action adventure with a basic combat system, laughably simple puzzles, basic stealth, meh writing and a whole bunch of questionable creative choices that make it incompatible with some of the LoK canon. The levels drag on a bit since the game fails to mix things up. All enemies are fought the same way, weapons practically don't differ from each other in any way and the initially promising powers, like being able to turn into mist, perform a long jump or control the minds of NPCs, are not used for anything resembling interesting challenges. The spots where you have to use them are obvious and you don't have to do anything other than actually use them. A few of the boss fights require some slightly more obscure methods but it's nothing special.

But all of it works and as far as I'm concerned the game's only real crime is that it's utterly unexciting. And the thing that it does have going for it is Kain. He's actually the megalomaniac and psychopath from the original game, rather than whatever Soul Reaver turned him into. Perhaps he's a bit more simple-minded than in BO1 but equally arrogant and evil and just having an action adventure where you play a genuine villain is kind of refreshing and fun. Honestly the one game I kept thinking of while playing BO2 was Manhunt. Obviously none of that makes Blood Omen 2 a great game but it does give it something to make it stand out over two decades later. Yeah, I wish it had been a bigger and better game but it's far from being the pile of trash that much of the fandom makes it out to be.

Now, regarding specifically the emulated PS2 version that you can play on PS5 (and I presume also on PS4): it's not great. Sadly the audio tends to glitch out. It's not a huge issue most of the time but sometimes you get desynced dialogue during cutscenes or ambience SFX will become super loud and make it impossible to hear what the characters are saying (and there are no subtitles). There's also stuff like boss music not playing or SFX being missing from cutscenes. If you want to play BO2 for some reason you should play the PC version, unless you're a trophy hunter.

Anyway, BO2 is not a great game by any means but I honestly prefer it over the half-baked and pretentious Soul Reaver 2. And the fans who insist that BO2 is ass because of its unfaithfulness to the LoK canon: I find that point pretty laughable considering how unfaithful SR2 was in regards to Kain's character - you know, the thing that the entire franchise was born from. So I'd call it a friggin draw at best.

So, four down, one left to go. I guess I'll wait for a few months in the hope that Defiance will get a PS5 release or a remaster will be announced. If that doesn't happen soon I'll play the GOG version I suppose.

Wheel World (PC Game Pass)

Short bike racing game with an art style similar to Sable or Dungeons of Hinterberg. It's a small open world where you can explore to find parts for your bike and enter races to win reputation so that you can challenge the bosses to progress the story. It's about 6-7 hours and is quite fun. However, if you're experienced with racing games in general you will find it relatively easy. Only the final couple of races are made difficult simply because of the amount of traffic and obstacles that you can be pushed into by the other riders. Still, it's a fun game for the short play length.