Game 21: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - 36 hours
PSV
A really fun visual novel with some puzzle solving here and there. The time jumping mechanic was interesting but it sometimes felt like a chore to do all of the scenes again. It's good that you were allowed to skip text, though. Some really crazy events and likable characters made the game so good.
Game 22: Grim Fandango Remastered - 13 hours
PC
Controls were a bit clunky, but other than that, I really enjoyed the game. Great soundtrack and voice acting. I had to look up a few solutions here and there. I guess my brain isn't as sharp as it used to be. I don't know. All in all, this was a great adventure game and no game after it really lives up to it.
Game 23: Pillars of Eternity - 72 hours
PC
I just beat the game on hard, playing for around 72 hours, completing every quest in the game. I will start off by saying that I don't regret backing the game, but that it has its problems.
My two cents:
I approached most combat encounters the same way: Send in tanks and then use ranged characters to help out. Things changed a bit when I had the paladin and druid in my team, because they were used as both melee and ranged combatants. There were some fun encounters, namely the bounties and a few fights here and there. Otherwise, I just stuck to the same tactics a lot of the time. Pathfinidng wasn't always what I wanted it to be and that was my biggest fear pre-release. People expected it to be good, but I said on the Obsidian fora that it was one of my biggest concerns. It worked most of the time, but there were moments when it truly pissed me off. I still miss hard counters, I didn't like the camping supply system, and ally/enemy AI was a bit of a letdown. I didn't hate melee engagement, but it should have been used as an ability in the game. The entire game shouldn't revolve around it. I usually just stuck to the same spells most of the time and when I reached level 9-11, I used the low level spells almost all the time. I barely used any potions or food, so that added a little challenge. Party members were mostly useless as their stats were crap, but I stuck with them for story reasons.
Visibility in combat was at times very annoying. Luckily, it didn't reach NWN2 levels for me.
Most maps looked nice, especially those that had been painted over. On the other hand, there were some maps that looked a little rough. In general, I was very impressed with the graphics. Armour designs also looked cool and I bought stuff just to see how they looked. Voice acting was decent and the writing was also decent. Above average according to me, but not as good as MotB or some of their other games. The music wasn't something I thought about much, but the soundtrack grew on me and I have to say that I really like it.
The quests were a bit underwhelming. There were a few good ones like one in Dyrford village, and some others here and there. A lot of the quests were a bit too straight forward and not super exciting. I guess it was nice that you could solve quests in different ways. As I said earlier, I really liked the bounties and they were a fun challenge. On the other hand, I was disappointed by everything else that had to do with the stronghold, barring the mega dungeon which I liked.
While I don't think the combat is as good as the IE games, I still liked the character system, even if it needs to be improved. I felt like there is a lot to choose from with how you develop your class. I had Eder as a tank but I also made a custom two handed fighter that I used occasionally. The companions were a mixed bag. I didn't care much for Pallegina, Sagani and Aloth. I really liked Durance, Eder and Hiravias. The others were okay. When it comes to other NPCs, there weren't really many that I cared for or hated. Again, there were a few that stood out, but in general, I forgot about many of the NPCs after a while.
My biggest disappointment is a selfish one. I was not happy to see how backer NPCs were handled. I saw mine and his sotry didn't match what I had written at all. He was a monk, that was about it. Had I known, I would have made an item. I hope that they don't have a useless reward like that for the next KS game.
All in all, I'd give the game an 8/10. I prefer F:NV, MotB and AP over PoE, but then again, those are some of my favorite rpgs. I'd put it with KOTOR II which I also like a lot.
(It's 2 AM over here, sorry for the incoherence and spelling mistakes.)
Game 24: Dragon Age: Inquisition - 107 hours
PS4
I'd say that around 15-20 of those hours were me being away from the game while operations were being done. Posted my brief thoughts on the game in the game's OT.
Game 25: inFAMOUS: First Light - 6 hours
PS4
I liked this more than Second Son. While there is only one type of power, I liked the side activities, despite them being repeated over and over. The races were fun, arena challenges were fun and getting to the neon lumens was also fun. A shorter and more tight experience than the adventures of Delsin.
Game 26: Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments - 14 hours
PS3
Tried this game out due to PS+. I went in with very low expectations and I thought the game would get deleted after maybe a play session of 15 minutes. Instead, I got a fun adventure game with decent puzzles, good voice acting, a story and scenario that kept you interested and curious as to what was going to happen next. I was happy and surprised to find out that I was right on all the final deductions. Maybe I should become a detective one day.
The problems the game had were technical (on PS3). Long loading times and at times, some stuttering and poor framerate.
Game 27: RONIN - 10 hours
PC
RONIN can easily be classified as a Gunpoint clone if you watch screens. It is true to some minor extent. Jumping works like it does in Gunpoint and the graphical style isn't that far off. Where it differs is the combat. While Gunpoint is real time based and at times wants you to be a bit stealthy, RONIN is actually turn-based and wishes to see all antagonists on the screen dead. While it had a mechanic or two that were annoying and while the precision isn't always as good as Gunpoint, the puzzle nature of the encounters are really fun.
Game 28: Titan Quest - 45 hours
PC
Played an Oracle with focus on summoning and and lightning damage. My character was the definition of a glass cannon. Not the first time I play the game but I do enjoy the different mythologies for each chapter. Music is solid and graphics are still okay for the type of game it is. I love the way the game lets you build your characters. One of the best hack n' slash games around.
Game 29: Transistor - 6,5 hours
PC
I picked this up because I enjoyed Bastion and I liked the concept of the battle system in this. I didn't enjoy it as much as Bastion, but it was still a good experience. I like how you could mix and match passives, upgrades and skills. Gave the battles some variety. Music and graphics were excellent and the voice acting was good. I still like the Bastion narrator more, and maybe that's why I prefer that game over Transistor. I'm not going for a Ng+ just like I didn't do with Bastion due to lack of time. If anyone's interested in a sort of turn-based combat system, it is fairly unique as I haven't seen any other game that plays like this.
Game 30: Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries - 3 hours
PC
Side scrolling platformer with some basic combat. It seems this was only part one of I don't know how many parts. The game was Kickstarted and I guess it was a decent first effort, but it's not a masterpiece and I'd recommend a purchase at about $5.
Game 31: LYNE - 18,5 hours
PC
Connect dots with lines is the simplest description I can give this game. Some levels have three different colors and they need to overlap and stuff. A really solid game that I recommend if you want to play something relaxing.
Game 32: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - 40 hours
PC
Bought this day one but only completed it a few days ago. I like everything but the combat system, and I hated the qte sections so I chose not to do them after one of the boss fights. The final fight was also annoying as all hell and took me a long time to beat, although I did beat it on my first try.
The story is good and the writing is up there with the very best that we currently have in the industry. The voice acting also impressed me, from main character to minor characters. Deliveries were great from the voice actors. I mostly enjoyed the soundtrack which only had a couple of songs I didn't care for. The game still looks great from a graphical point of view and the design is overall great.
I didn't care for the combat because at the time when I first played it, it kept reminding me of Demon's Souls but it wasn't anyway near the fun of DS. The menus were a pain in the ass to use. I hope TW3 improves this. Inventory management was the worst in long time.
I'm going to pick up TW3 at some point, but I am in no real hurry to do so.
Game 33: Titan Quest: Immortal Throne - 25 hours
PC
After beating the original campaign, I took a break from the game and beat some others from my backlog. Returned to this and had a lot of fun despite dying several times to some crazy ass bosses. While I had played chapters 1-3, this was the first time I played IT. Not much to say other than it was a good continuation of the main game and I liked it just as much as the rest of the content.
Game 34: Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack - 3,5 hours
PC
I think I beat the Vita version last year. I was scrolling through my Steam library looking for a short game to play and saw this. I remember having fun with it, so I decided to install and play. Completed it in two sittings. You're basically a blob and eat stuff to get bigger so you can eat bigger stuff. Some obstacles are in your way, but nothing that is overly complex or hard to get by.
Game 35: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - 90 hours
PS2 (PC emulator)
Copy pasting from the Summer of Dragon Quest thread.
Well, Dragon Quest VIII is done 100%. All monsters and infamous monsters beaten, Dragovian trials completed, both endings acquired and Morrie's arena completed.
The final boss was a bit ridiculous with the whole scepter thing you had to do. It drags out the fight way too long, but once the fight actually starts, it's really exciting. The conclusion of the game, especially the true ending were great. I was a bit bummed about the regular ending. It was a shame that a certain character in the game is no longer in the story. While I wanted him to die, he was a great villain. I didn't feel the same hatred/connection to the others after him.
I still think the combat is super slow and I would enjoy it twice as much if there was a fast forward option. Everything moves so slowly and it was the reason I gave up on the game on my first try a few years ago. There are enough fun skills and spells to use, but by the end game, I pretty much used the same AoE attacks in fights. The Dragovian trials made me mix things up as healing was very important. One thing I really like is how much difference some of the buffs can make. They can be the difference between defeat and glorious victory. That's not always the case in every jrpg. The battle system shone when you had to fight some of the fiercest monsters in the game. I was constantly on my toes. I got to admit that I had to try the Dragovian trials a few times before beating them. With some grinding and change of tactics, it all worked out.
The characters were great. I hated the ones that you are supposed to hate and the ones you are supposed to like are really likable. Angelo was and one or two more characters you meet through the story, I changed my mind about a lot. Yangus and Trode are two of my favorite characters. With that said, I must also say that I burst out lughing when Trode's curse was lifted. The way he looks, haha. What I love about the game is that it has this lighthearted look and feel, but shit gets really grim at points. It felt a bit like being in some kind of old tale. None of that "cool" fantasy, or whatever. And I love that about the game.
The voice acting was very solid. I still put FFXII in higher regard, but the voice actors did a great job here. I thought the British accents might be too much, but it didn't bother me one bit. The music is awesome, especially
Heavenly Flight was bleedin' awesome.
It took me about 90 hours to do everything. I had to look at some checklists online to see that I hadn't missed anything. That's how I learned about the trials and the true ending.
My impressions are probably not easy to follow and a lot of it is probably blabber, but I wrote this message directly after beating the game.
Game 36: Serpent in the Staglands - 32 hours
PC
I'll copy paste my rpgcodex thoughts:
Well, I finished the game but I have a feeling that I missed a lot of stuff. I'm awful at writing impressions, but whatver the fuck, here they are:
What I liked:
The atmosphere was great and I loved the pixel graphics. The setting was also interesting, with it's eastern European influences. It was cool that spells could be used outside of combat to progress the game and solve some puzzles. The ending was great. I won't talk about it here, but I didn't fight who I thought I was going to fight. I played a fairly dickish character, and how it came back to show that to me in the last moments of the game was great. I hadn't really cared much about the story, but those moments were worth a lot and I have to give two thumbs up to the devs. I like that the story isn't about saving the world and stuff like that. In general, the writing was solid when it was there, but there are still spelling errors. It doesn't look so good when there are some in the last conversation of the game. I liked that the combat actions weren't super fast paced, even if most encounters were over fairly quickly. The loot you find is boring early on but you find some cool stuff as you go. I ended up with armors from blacksmith as they seemed to be the best the game had to offer. Not a lot of micromanaging was needed. And lastly, the exploration was a lot of fun. Having to find your next destination on your own and figure shit out is fun but...
What I didn't like:
...I'm actually not a super big fan of the journal. I don't want shit spelled out to me or have me pointed in the right direction, as the exploration was one of the best aspects of the game. On the other hand, there could have been small entries like: Find this character or that character, and stuff like that. I played the game in windowed mode and had Wordpad opened, so it isn't a huge deal. When it comes to difficulty, I think the game was a bit on the easy side, a lot of the time. I had trouble with a bounty and I never could figure out a way to stay alive when crawlers were around. Other than that, when you get some decent gear (and later on very good gear) most of the game becomes a cakewalk. Healing and physical shield, plus knockdowns got me a long way. I wish there was more writing. I guess the journals, letters and other things like that you find on your journey were well written. Companions barely had anything to say.
I personally rate Pillars of Eternity a little higher, but not by much. I played both games fairly similarly in combat. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, so I am happy that both exist and that I played these two games in the same year.
Game 37: Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut - 21 hours
PC
I beat the regular version when it came out but I decided that I wanted to go through the story with the improvements and added content before Shadowrun Hong Kong gets released. If you like wrpgs, this could be a game for you.
Game 38: Omerta: City of Gangsters - 16 hours
PC
On paper, this had the potential to become my favorite game of all time. Unfortunately, the missions were fairly boring and the fights were really bad. Stayed with it through the end, but by the end of the day, it isn't a game I will remember fondly.
Game 39: Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts - 4 hours
PC
My favorite New Vegas DLC of the three that I have played. I have Lonesome Road left to play. Overall, I enjoyed it. I only wish it was a bit meatier and fleshed out. Liked Graham a lot.
Game 40: Shadowrun Hong Kong - 31 Hours
PC
Finally finished the game yesterday. I liked it, but in the end, it does not beat Dragonfall in quality.
During the final mission, the transition icon to progress wasn't interactive, so I had to redo the mission twice before it worked properly. That was a waste of 2 hours of my life. My final playtime according to Steam is 31 hours. I guess that's right if I count some reloads and leaving the game on while doing other stuff.
The writing is a mixed bag. I liked it most of the time, but by the end, I was just quickly skimming NPC dialog in the base hub because it was a bit much to read and not top quality at all times. It also doesn't help that they for some reason felt it is a good idea to have the text to the right for the third time. Just put the text on the lower part of the screen. I don't mind a lot of words in my games. There was a lot of cool stuff to read, but not all of it was good or well written. It's a bit jarring seeing some really well written sections and then some that are clearly not as good. When it comes to the main story: It was decent, just not anything super exciting. I'm not satisfied with the lead up to the ending. I didn't feel that there were enough missions that directly had to do with our main objective. In the end, I say the main story missions were decent, but again not on the level of Dragonfall.
The writing was mostly good during missions, with some misses here and there. Overall, I can't really complain though, but i was not at the same level as Dragonfall. The female companions weren't amazing but still better than Glory and the annoying decker, I always forget his name.
Duncan wasn't bad, but very predictable. I liked Racter and Gaichu. I also like the cyberware dude NPC. The other NPCs, I didn't care much for. The Plastic Faced Man was really underused. I was expecting to see more on that front. I was looking forward to the confrontation with him, the omemtn I have been waiting for finally happens and it turns out to be one of the more underwhelming missions in the game.
I felt that this was the easiest game of the three HBS Shadowrun games. (I do play on Normal.) I got to reload the game once during a run because I accidentally killed an enemy that I wasn't supposed to (and when I had issues with a game breaking bug during the final mission), but not for dying. Gaichu and Racter are incredibly good in combat, and the same goes for is0bel and Duncan. On one hand, I shouldn't complain, because, to be honest, I hate it when games give you companions that you feel suck in combat. I only wish that we could develop the characters as we see fit and have direct control of their inventories. There a few big fights, but mostly there were not as many big ones as Dragonfall DC. The enemy variety wasn't too impressive. Even Returns was better in this regard if I remember correctly.
If they decide to make another game in the vein of the three they have already developed, I hope we get a big overhaul of many things. Loot could be a fun addition, but it isn't a must have. Maybe only have it on special enemies. A more open world structure. I'm not saying open world, just make areas feel more connected. I don't want everything to be self contained. Bigger environments, and in general, make the game feel a bit more alive. I also felt that the game didn't run well. It ended up with me checking framrates and what I saw was a bit surprising. It kept going from 60 to 20, to 60 and so on. The game is very poorly optimized. Or maybe my PC is shit, it has more than half a decade on its neck. User interface is in dire need of a n overhaul. The game was developed for PC, make an interface worth of PC games. Everything from quest log to inventory needs to be redone.
The soundtrack was good. I probably prefer Dragonfall's slightly more, but I'd still say that this was a solid soundtrack that I will probably listen to a couple of times now that I am done with the game. In general, I feel that the atmosphere is actually good. Best of the three games. The game is cool and I am happy to have backed it, yet I feel that it isn't as good as Dragonfall. Not much worse, but it still is a clear second. Much better than Returns, though.
ragon Warrior
