01. Stardew Valley | PS4 | ~110hrs | ★★★★ | JAN 18TH
My first one of these type of Animal Crossing-esque games and probably the last for a while. Not because it was bad but because I was borderline obsessed for a good three weeks.

02. Furi | PS4 | ~17hrs | ★★★ | JAN 4TH
Fantastic soundtrack and I enjoyed most of the fights. The story was gibberish as far as I could tell.

03. Let It Die | PS4 | ~45hrs | ★★★.5 before paywall / ★★.5 after paywall | JAN 30TH
Was having a legit blast until I began bumping up against the aforementioned paywall which, as Super Bunnyhop pointed it out starts around Floor 19 and by Floor 24 or so is flat out ridiculous. I would have stuck with it but the grind gets old if you don't want to shell out for Death Metals IMO, especially when you make a new Lvl 1 character only to run into a Lvl 74 Hater on Floor 2 over and over and over.

04. Far Cry Primal | PS4 | ~40hrs | ★★★ | FEB 2ND
The prehistoric setting was novel but I'm over the Far Cry 3/4/P grind now. It's definitely put the dampers on my hype for FC5 unless they prove to really up-end the formula in a way that eschews this stale upgrade treadmill and injects a little variety.

05. Nioh | PS4 | ~58hrs | ★★★★ | MAR 3RD
TBH I struggled with Nioh early on a lot more than any of the Souls games I've played to date, but once I got into the the groove of it, I felt like I had mastered the combat to a level I never had to in Dark Souls. That said, I wasn't a fan of the bespoke levels and a lot of the side missions amounting to playing the same level in reverse or with harder enemies. The late game grinding I had to do to get even near the recommended level for the final side missions was insane. I'd argue they should have given the difficulty curve another pass or scaled the XP better. I didn't lose my Amartia much either. Otherwise, it was fantastic. Last couple main mission bosses were way too easy though. I dunno, the difficulty curve was all over the place for me.

06. Horizon Zero Dawn | PS4 | ~39hrs | ★★★★ | MAR 9TH
Despite being mostly apathetic about FC Primal just a month earlier, I went ahead and got this mostly for the eye candy and was pleasantly surprised with both the story and the combat. While the combat isn't exactly deep, the different bow and arrow types added a very welcome level of strategy to most fights (I still think fighting humans in that game is garbage so I just assassinated them 99% of the time). And of course the game is drop dead gorgeous. Can't wait to see Death Stranding on the Decima Engine.

07. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: WIldlands | PS4 | ~68hrs | ★★★ Solo / ★★★.5 Coop | MAR 14TH
It's definitely repetitive and yet in a way I could slip into a very zen-like state and watch the hours tick away and still want to keep going. It's definitely better with friends IMO although you can be a lot more efficient solo at the same time. Parachuting in as a squad to pick apart an enemy outpost and assassinate a leader or rescue a VIP while two friends hijack a chopper to provide cover on your extraction is a badass feeling.

08. Lara Croft Go | PS4 | ~5hrs | ★★.5 | APR 2ND
Another 'Go' game. Simple but fun. I found the puzzles to be more enjoyable than Hitman Go's.

09. NieR: Automata | PS4 | ★★★★★ | ~61hrs | APR 13TH
I make no bones about it, Nier: Automata is thus far my GOTY which is surprising to even me. I can't say too much without massively spoiling the game but let's just say I found the story deeply affecting in a way I wasn't expecting and if I have one complaint, it's that I wish there was more of this world to explore and more stories to experience. I never played the original Nier but it's now sitting very near the top of my backlog. I will play it this year. Oh and the combat was a little rote for PlatinumGames.

10. Shadow Warrior 2 | PS4 | ★.5 | ~25hrs | JUN 16TH
Generally speaking I love looters but something about this one just fell flat for me. Even playing with a group of friends, I found the repetitive nature of game very boring and mind-numbing. I could only do a few missions each time before I just was bored to tears. There was too much loot and so much of it garbage and most seemed inconsequential in that it didn't change the way the game played or felt at all, a problem I also had with the enemies. Changing elemental damage doesn't constitute gameplay variety IMO. All in all, it reminded me a lot of Borderlands. Terrible writing, a barely existent plot and a Diablo-esque loop without any of the things that made leveling up and getting new loot in Diablo 3 feel awesome. At least Borderlands had some novel characters.

11. Persona 5 | PS4 | ★★★★ | ~150hrs (incl. NG+) | JUN 24TH
Persona 5 was my first and onliest turn-based JRPG that I've ever finished so not only was I a Persona virgin but a genre virgin too. Despite all that, or possibly because of it, I enjoyed my time with P5. It certainly wasn't perfect. I found the last two Palaces to be way too long to the point that I wasn't having fun with that part of the game anymore. Some of the time management stuff was annoying to me too. Not just the part where some things cause time to pass despite how trivial they are while others don't pass time at all, but more particularly the days where everything is essentially on autopilot, making it feel like your time is being wasted, solely to make it nearly impossible to do everything in one play-through. That said, the highs were really high and I enjoyed most of the core characters and the confidant stuff. The plot gets a little up it's own ass when it goes for the plot twist, but overall not so bad that it changed my opinion of the story much. The combat was mostly fun; challenging while relatively briskly paced (although the result screen afterward should be skippable); but fuck Hamas and Mudoon. The few times I died were being instakilled by that shit and that's just not fun, especially when you encounter a Persona for the first time and have no idea it has those abilities. The grinding was a bit extreme for my tastes but at least they give you ways to mitigate that. I also didn't care for the way they do NG+ (i.e. certain things carry over, others don't), I don't like games forcing multiple play-throughs to see/do everything .

12. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove | PS4 | ★★★★ | ~20hrs | JUL
I played a level or two of it way back when it first came out on PS4 and didn't love it but came back to it recently and I enjoyed the whole package. Tough at times but fair. I guess I lucked out because I bought it relatively early on so it looks like I got all the update free. Waa-hoo! Now to try the other campaigns!

13. Gemini: Heroes Reborn | PS4 | ★★ | ~8hrs | JUL
Decided to give it a try after seeing it on Vinny Caravella's personal Top 10 games of 2016 list. I'm usually down with what Vinny likes and I see the appeal of the game, but everything felt so janky I just couldn't get into it. The story was blah and the powers were cool but didn't seem to jive well or make a lot of sense.

14. Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition | PS4 | ★★★.5 | ~40hrs | JUL
Another solid effort from Housemarque. Never played in on PS3 and initially wasn't a huge fan of the weapons but came back to it for the co-op and my buddy and I had a blast with it. A little disappointing that your weapon upgrades don't carry over from one difficulty to the next but I suppose that would have made the game way too easy on the hardest difficulties. Great fun in co-op.

15. Tearaway Unfolded | PS4 | ★★.5 | ~18hrs | JUL
Enjoyed the game on the Vita, not so much this one. It's not bad but it's a lot of the same stuff, which I was prepared for as it's basically sold as a remaster, but the new stuff specific to PS4 wasn't anything to write home about. It also made the game seem way too long as well.

16. ICEY | PS4 | ★★★ | 5hrs | JUL
Heard about it a while ago and didn't know it was coming to the US PSN so I picked up the HK version. The combat side reminded me a little of Nier: Automata on normal; button mashy and pretty forgiving. I had not heard about the meta part or the narration throughout. That was a nice surprise. The acting from the narrator was pretty cheesy but not so much that it annoyed me. It was weird to hear Carcosa and The Yellow King pop up in a hack n slash 2D fighter that I'm pretty sure is from Asia when the only other place I had heard those things before was True Detective (although I know it's from literature including being co-opted by Lovecraft into his work. Enjoyable but short game.

17. Small Radios, Big Televisions | PS4 | ★★★ | 5hrs | JUL
Another short but fun little game. The atmosphere and puzzle solving reminded me of The Witness a little, although in reality they don't seem much a like. They both just take a relatively simple type of puzzle and then build and build and build upon it. I liked that it was on the short side too. It didn't overstay it's welcome for me, unlike The Witness.

18. Sundered | PS4 | ★★★ | 19hrs | JUL
Sundered had not been on my radar at all until right before launch. The incredibly well-drawn and animated art style interested me and I'm always up for a Metroidvania type game. While I enjoyed the vast majority of the game, the weird hiccups in the game (just freezing randomly for half a second), the occasional BSOD on PS4 and the nearly constant stream of enemies at all times began to take it's toll after a while. If not for that, this would have been one of my favorite games of the 2017 thus far but the technical issues were often enough to be annoying and the ceaseless mobs made exploring a chore when it should have been interesting. It wouldn't have been so bad if they were a little more challenging but what little challenge there was felt cheap with enemies shooting you through walls that you yourself cannot shoot through and often from off screen. Super Bunnyhop did a video on it for those interested.

19. Jazzpunk | PS4 | ★★★.5 | ~4hrs | AUG
Hilarious and strange little game. I heard about it years ago but never got around to it until recently when I decided to buckle down and clear the backlog as much as I could. Honestly the only disappointing part was when it ended. Well, and I wasn't the biggest fan of that beach level. Definitely makes me want to see more games that try to weave comedy into them.

20 . Albedo: Eyes from Outerspace | PS4 | ★ | 3hrs | AUG
Another backlog game, this one wasn't nearly as good. The puzzle solving was simplistic and easy apart from this one that was annoying underwater. I swear, the guy voicing the main character sounds like he was high af for most of it. Strange game, not my type of thing.

21. Her Majesty's Spiffing | PS4 | ★.5 | ~3hrs | AUG
Very much a traditional adventure game with a little comedy thrown in here and there. It didn't do anything different or exemplary well so it was kind of boring for me. Adventure fans might get more out of it but I was glad when it was over.

22. Here They Lie | PS4 | ★★★ | ~4hrs | AUG
Didn't play this in VR but I liked it quite a bit. Very interesting story once you have the full breadth of it. I was enjoying walking around this hellscape wondering what exactly was going on until I got to this part near the end where you have to run from house to house to avoid these little creatures. That part and a few others dragged the pacing down for me. I know it's padding to lengthen the game but I don't appreciate that shit. I'd rather play a 2 hour game with tight pacing than something that drags.

23. L.A. Cops | PS4 | ★★ | ~5hrs | AUG
It looked like a Hotline Miami knock off but man, it's got none of the gameplay refinement of Hotline Miami. The AI is dumb and that was the only saving grace as it made the game rather easy to cheese so I could get through it pretty quickly. No one should mention this game in the same breath as HLM.

24. Unravel | PS4 | ★★★.5 | 13hrs | AUG
Very cute little game. For the most part the gameplay and puzzle solving was fun and intuitive. It could have been a little more challenging in some places, but I guess it was intended more as an all-audiences type game so I can let that go. The main character is a cute little critter and the way they animate him differently in the different levels made it feel alive. It'd rub it's shoulders in the cold level and look around it with these big eyes when it was scarred. Really good job conveying emotion without words. Real interested to see what's next from that studio. Oh and the art style is fantastic. Beautiful game.

25. Color Guardians | PS4 | ★★.5 | 8hrs | AUG
Endless runner type game with multiple lanes of different colors where you need to collect color blobs. Kind of reminded me if you turned the Rockband/Guitar Hero highway left-to-right. Surprisingly difficult at times it made for a challenge occasionally in a game that looks like it's straight up phone game for kids.

26. Blackwood Crossing | PS4 | ★★★ | 3-4hrs | AUG
Cute little walking simulator type game with some very basic puzzle solving but is mostly about the story of the main character and her little brother. I don't want to spoil the story stuff so much so I'll just say I enjoyed it and it was a good length. Enough time to get interested without overstaying it's welcome and becoming tedious.

27. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin | PS4 | ★★★★ | ~40hrs | AUG
Played DS2 on PS3 but picked up the PS4 version for cheap a while ago to do the DLC stuff. I don't know if it's the tweaks they've made or just coming back to a Dark Souls game I've played before and having it be a solid 60fps but man is this game a hoot. The DLC stuff is real cool and I have liked the small changes to enemy placements and the like they made. DS2 was my first DS game so it's probably still my favorite between 2 and 3. Still need to play 1 but SotFS is definitely an upgrade from 2 and probably my favorite thus far (Bloodborne is excluded).

28. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record | PS4 | ★★★ | ~70hrs | AUG/SEP
I can't honestly say the majority of the Dead Rising games are good games, but they are bad games that I thoroughly enjoy playing. When the first 3 (main) games were remastered and ported to next-gen, I'm probably one of the few people that was legitimately excited about that. I just love the world of those games and OTR is probably my favorite to date. The playground in DR2 is bigger and better than the original and the weapon crafting makes for some fantastic, fun, and silly combat moments, and in OTR you get all that plus Frank West too. What's not to love? Plus it was fun to play it again without it being (as much) of a choppy mess. I don't think it quite maintains 60fps the whole time but it's so much better than back on 360.

29. Mafia 3 | PS4 | ★★★ | ~45hrs | OCT
Mafia 3 is at the same time one of the best open world crime games I've played in a long time and also one of the worst. While the plot follows the framework of a boiler plate revenge tale, because of the quality of the writing and the light interweaving of historical elements into the story, it rises well above the tropes it's built on. Even though I wouldn't consider Lincoln a particularly well fleshed out character, he's above average for the genre and probably one of the better protagonists in the genre since John Marston and some of the more colorful side characters like Donovan and a great, albeit too short cameo by comedian Joey Diaz kept me invested all the way to the end. The problem is that the gameplay in between is about as repetitive as you can get. There's virtually no variation to main mission structure and the ancillary stuff like races and the repeatable missions for your underbosses are somehow even worse. They're skipable whereas the repetitive main missions are not and there are so many it becomes a question of if it's worth it to get to the next story beat. In the end, it is worth it, but the game would have been so much better with either more variety or pairing down of missions to make the whole thing move quicker. That said, I'm looking forward to jumping back into New Bourdeux at some point to give the DLC a try but for now I need a break from it.

30. Everybody's Golf | PS4 | ★★.5 | ~35hrs | OCT
I really wanted to enjoy this game but apart from the golf itself being relatively solid, I just found nothing to like here. After the first 5-10 hours, it was all downhill from there as you repeat the same courses in just slightly different variations over and over. First vanilla, then with wind, then with small cups, now with big cups and no drivers, now with rain, now in reverse order, etc. But the biggest disappointment of all is that despite having online play, there is inexplicably no way to party up with friends to either play together as a team or even against each other. You can kind of do it in the shared area, but any actual play where you can set modifiers or pick a course, you cannot.

31. Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel | PS4 | ★★★ | ~5hrs | SEPT
Generally whenever there is any new Soulsborne content, I've found the most enjoyable way to run through it the first time is in coop with my buddy. It lets us work together to figure things out and mitigates some of the frustration that can arise in going through a new area in a Souls game. Plus we get to play everything twice! Unfortunately that was probably the worst way to play this DLC as, even though I'm on NG+5, everything was so easy. In both my game and his, we beat the Ariandel/Freide fight first try. I went back and did it all on my solo character and while it was significantly more challenging, I still made rather short work of it. Definitely glad I didn't pay full price for it.

32. Dark Souls III: The Ringed City | PS4 | ★★★★ | ~15hrs | SEPT/OCT
So much better than Ashes it almost hurts. I never research Souls content ahead of time, I just buy it and play it at this point, so it was kind of surreal to go through the beginning area only to realize about halfway through that it was Earthen Peak. It's a nice throwback to DS2, including the sorceress invader straight out of DS2 Earthen Peak. It really shines though when you get to the titular Ringed City which is chock full of new enemies and lots of exploring to do and MUCH better boss fights, from Midir to Gael and the novel PvP Spear of the Church fight. I loved fighting Midir on the bridge only to be invaded and just by the skin of my teeth, defeating both before limping to the shortcut to the real Midir fight.


NOW PLAYING
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir | PS4 | PENDING |

COMING SOON

Main post

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18. Gravity Ghost - 3.3 hours
Small little indie game build around gravity mechanics. Can't say i was impressed, it's just nice game with sometimes stiff controls and weird story pacing. 10 years i would recommend it, but now there is a lot more interesting indie games that can propose you more value and quality for better price.

40:01h. True Ending, all miniventures complete. No postgame.

While WoFF can look like "Baby's First Final Fantasy", and indeed even the devs have described it as a game for younger players, it's also a competent JRPG. Beneath its cliche'd (until the final third- then shit hits the fan) plot, its linearity, the low difficulty and its deceptively cute façade, hides loads of charm, a great battle system with solid 'mon collecting and some challenging, well, challenges towards the end.

I just hope that, if Square ever decides to make a sequel, they will chose less annoying protagonists. One just can't help hating them.

My Score: ★★★☆☆

Original Post

19. Event[0] (2 hours)
The game's main mechanic of conversing with an AI is interesting enough to justify a playthrough, but it clearly has its limitations.

So this was a rather short PnC. Overall I enjoyed it, although a few puzzles felt like you had to randomly try every item with every random object you could find in a screen.
Nice voice acting though.

Well I beat it at 20 hours getting This game consumed a lot out of me and I can't be arsed sadly to play a few more hours to get the other endings I'm sad to say.
Would still recommend it though to anyone who is a fan of Action Adventure games.

20. Lords Of The Fallen - 15 Hours


Platform: PC (Steam)
Completed on: 17.5.2017
Rating: 7 / 10

This Dark Souls-like Action RPG begins quite well but after a few hours the gameplay seems a bit boring. There are not much enemies, most of them are melee and you can learn their combat styles very fast. The graphics are quite good.
I did one playthrough on normal difficulty.


21. Mega Man - 2 Hours


Platform: PC (Steam)
Completed on: 17.5.2017
Rating: 7 / 10

The first part of the legendary Mega Man series aged not quite as well as the second.

That's Resident Evil Revelations done.

Played it on Normal difficulty on the Wii U. Wasn't really enjoying it at around the half-way point. Actually contemplated putting it down, but pushed on... if only to see what other horrible haircuts/ludicrously unpractical outfits/ear gratingly bad dialogue the characters came out with next... Roll on part 2.

I need to play less League of Legends...
I enjoyed Ep. 2 more than Ep. 1 though it did fele like it rushed through certain points in the story. Otherwise, it was a fun ride even though some puzzles were odd, like using a PLUNGER to open a Window in order to progress. You'd have used said Plunger already for solving a nother puzzle and honestly you'd need to try everything that is on every screen til you realized that's what you gotta do.
Looking forward to Ep. 3 this August.

Tizoc said:

I need to play less League of Legends...

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Yeah a meager 110 games within 5 months is pretty lackluster.

original post

13. Zero Escape : Virtue's Last Reward - 22 hours

Amazing sequel for an amazing game. I hated and still hate the awkward 3d visuals but everything else about the game was amazing. Story was beyond superb.

9/10

14.Zero Time Dilemma - 20 hours

Awesome game but disappointing end. Story was good and puzzles were fine but it felt lacking compared to the previous two entries. Graphics and animations were sometimes beyond horrible. But I still enjoyed the game A LOT and enjoyed my time playing.

8.7/10

I have run out of characters in my first games post so I am moving finished with but not completed games and betas into this post.

All posts index

Master list - here
Games 1 - 19 comments - here
Finished with but Incomplete games - here

Finished with but not completed games:

Incomplete #1: TorqueL - FullPowerSideAttack/Playism - PS4
Completion State:
Played an hour or so.

Comments:
So it turns out I don't like TorqueL. I don't think it's necessarily bad per sé but I can't get on with it. Conceptually I like the idea but for me I can't get over "rolling" a square. The game requires the physics to be convincing and entertaining but as they have to start with this "rolling" a square compromise it never quite delivers. I've only tried the first few levels but the simplistic nature of the levels doesn't justify the effort required to navigate them. I think I can get it but I don't really want it enough.

If that makes any sense!!

Beta Tests

Beta #1: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands - Ubisoft - PS4
Completion State:
Played most of the content in the two available provinces.

Comments:
Enjoyed it.

The open world is fairly simple but works OK as a [good looking] backdrop for the missions themselves. The minute to minute game play is fun enough with enough freedom to allow me to create my own story within the game and the actual mechanics are OK, gun play is fine (nice to have sway and recoil) and driving, though arcadey, isn't horrid. I actually think the terrain lends itself to a simple driving model otherwise you'd be forever getting stuck, fighting the controls or losing momentum bouncing off or trees and other roadside furniture. The whole game smacks of "nothing revolutionary but totally functional and pretty fun given the right people". The only things I properly didn't like are things ultimately incidental to my enjoyment of a game like this: story, acting and the awful radio show host.

All in all I won't be picking this up day one but I definitely will play it at some point.

Beta #2: Gran Turismo Sport - Polyphony - PS4
Completion State:
Ongoing.

Comments:
To follow.

Original post


14. Prey (PC, 2017) - 32:49
Completed the campaign on Normal, no typhon powers.

Prey was barely on my radar. I knew it had taken the name of a minor cult classic, but otherwise had nothing to do with that game. I knew it was faintly sinister. I knew it was a first-person shooter. That was about all I knew until a few weeks ago, when someone whispered the secret phrase, "it's like System Shock 2."

Friends, if System Shock 3 manages to turn out as well as Prey did, we're all in for a hell of a treat.

At first, the game feels very much like a modern-day interpretation of System Shock 2. You start as an amnesiac trapped on a space station who has the voice of a distant collaborator giving you orders you don't quite understand. Weird alien things roam the hallways, hiding amongst the corpses of the people who once inhabited the station. Very quickly, you start digging into people's emails and finding audio logs, listening to the conversations of the dead. Everything points to a time of relative calm, when everyone was just part of a corporation conducting scientific experiments of dubious ethics, and then sudden chaos.

It doesn't take long, though, for Prey to begin deviating from the script, and nearly all these deviations subvert your expectations in interesting ways. You learn early on that you're not a nameless grunt, but someone of extreme importance. You also learn that you signed up to have your memories erased. Then there are the gameplay aspects, which take some cues from Bioshock but somehow feel more satisfying to use here. Your base arsenal of weapons is incredibly weak, especially as you progress through the game. Your powers, the various stun effects at your disposal, and the exploitation of alien weaknesses are all crucial to your success. The game never really tells you a lot about this, leaving it to you to experiment with different combinations. Weapons upgrades improve your ability to deal damage, but the best upgrades aren't necessarily the ones you think are obvious at the start of the game.

Sneak attacks are important as well, as they increase your damage output. But crucially, this isn't like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, where you spend half the game doing the Safety Dance behind cover. Stealth is situational and there's no instakill moves here, just the dread of creeping up behind a phantom willing them not to turn around and discover you. And if there's one thing this game is amazing at, it's dread. Even when you're in a position of advantage, it can be frightening trying to take a powerful enemy down, at least at first. But the worst moments are when you don't suspect anything at all. Mimics may go down as one of the most memorable enemies of 2017, thanks to their ability to hide in plain sight as random inanimate objects. Even late in the game, I was still being jumped unawares by mimics. Paranoia is your best friend.

I've been thinking a lot lately about why I like certain open-world games and why I dislike others. Over time, I've been moving away from vast open-world games like Assassin's Creed (Fallout being the notable exception) in favour of games that provide a more intimate environment for a sandbox: the streets and alleys of Yakuza's Kamurocho, for example. Talos I is another world in the same vein, and it's hard to think of another that feels as lived-in as this one. The kitchen-sink melodramas, the corporate skullduggery, the intimate and not-so-intimate affairs of three hundred people are littered across Talos I's computers and rooms. Sometimes you'll happen upon the corpse of someone you've already gotten to know through their various interactions with other crew members, knowing in the back of your mind that they were all already dead. Sometimes, the backstory comes later. But either way, Talos I feels like a living, breathing village--one whose heart and soul has been corrupted by a malevolent alien presence.

In a year that's already chock full of stellar games, Prey has claimed another early spot on my GOTY list. It may very well end up being the most surprising game of 2017 for me. Absolutely recommended.

20. Clustertruck (4 hours)
Considering how fast-paced a platformer it is, the first-person perspective harms the game in how it limits the player's understanding of a given level. In spite of that, the game does excel in terms of its controls and design. Well worth playing.

Full list to date.

Im glad I went hard early in the year and hit the 40s fast because for the past month or so ive hit my yearly "im going to play this non-story game obcessively for a few months" with Heroes of the Storm (again) and those types of games (like Marvel Heroes or WoW or ESO previously) just suck 2-3 months out of my life.

Main Post - Part 1
Main Post - Part 2

Finishing the DLC for these first two is on indefinite hold so I guess now is a good time to talk about them.

#22: Overcooked

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What a great concept, what great execution. Overcooked is a 4-player couch co-op cooking game with very simple but enjoyable gameplay. You're in a kitchen, orders come in at the top of the screen, you have to make the required food and send it off to the customer. The faster you fulfill the order, the higher the tip you get. Fail to get an order out in the time limit and you lose points. You have chopping boards to cut things, pans to fry things, pots to make soup, etc. The recipes themselves start very simple but become a little more complex over time. For example to make a burger you need to pound meat into a patty before cooking it, then adding it to the burger with the rest of the ingredients. Further complicating things is that you only have 3 plates and they have to be washed after they're used.

But the real joy of Overcooked comes from the level design. Nobody should ever want to cook in any of the kitchens in this game, they are designed to cause you headaches. From a rocking ship that causes the counters to slide all over the place, to a series of trucks on a highway, movement is generally limited in some way making coordination and efficient delegation of tasks the keys to success.

The presentation gives the game a ton of charm too. The plot revolves around a group of 1-4 chefs tasked by the Onion King (a giant sentient onion) with feeding a giant spaghetti monster to death. They fail, and so are sent back in time to prepare and learn how to work together better as a team. There are also a ton of playable characters to choose from, but my favourite character is the default chef who is always maniacally grinning, even while chopping food. If you haven't played this game yet, grab some friends and get to it.

#23: Affordable Space Adventures: 4.7 hours

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Affordable Space Adventures is a 2D puzzle game, where you and up to two friends pilot a spaceship (but you really should play with all three). One person flies the ship, one person controls the flare gun and scanner, and the last has control of the ship's systems on the Wii U Gamepad. This last position is what gives the game it's hook, with only that person able to see how the ship is configured, and trying to take orders from the other two to get through the game. Most enemies can't be destroyed, instead you have to scan them to find out whether they respond to noise, heat, or electricity, and then keep the ships levels below their detection threshold.

There are a lot of toys to play with, with extra bits and bobs being unlocked throughout the game. A few of the puzzles are a bit unpolished though, introducing new concepts out of nowhere and expecting you to pick up on them right away. But there's not really a whole lot else to say about it. It's engaging the whole way through, it looks and sounds fantastic. Go check it out.

#24: Dishonored 2: 49.5 hours

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I enjoyed Dishonored 2 even more than the first game, and that's saying a lot. Emily's totally new power set is a breath of fresh area most games wouldn't dare to implement (though the option to play as Corvo with the old powers softens that somewhat). But this really is Emily's story, and you should definitely play as her at least the first time through.

Far Reach is a lot more finicky than Blink, but once you get used to it's quirks it's far more interesting. It functions more like a grappling hook than a teleport, pulling you forward and giving you momentum if you want it. If you're willing to take the leap you can go much further, much faster. This comes with a trade-off in that you can't use it to gain much height under most circumstances, with it preferring to target the ground beyond a certain distance in front of you. But you can upgrade it to snatch guards which is the best feeling in the world so on the whole it's a great power.

The game still suffers from a lack of non-lethal and stealth options, but I'm coming to see this as a good thing. When you go assault in this game it becomes far too easy, you are so mobile and powerful that you can clear an area in seconds without breaking a sweat. If you self-impose a non-lethal or ghost (never spotted) run the game becomes far more interesting as you can't just run in and kill everyone. It can be argued that the game letting you play it guns blazing is a bad thing, and I can see that, but I had no problem imposing the restrictions on myself to make it more fun.

As much as I enjoyed this game, I'm really glad I held off. The improvements made to it post-launch have made it feel like a much more cohesive and complete whole. New Game Plus is great fun, turning you into even more of a god of silent death, and the custom difficulty settings are amazing. You can individually modify over 20 parameters including how much potions heal you, and how much awareness guards have of areas above them. In addition you can customise the FPS threshold and lower limit of the dynamic resolution scaling. More games should have this much customisation, it's great.

Dishonored 2 didn't light the world on fire, and it's definitely more of the same. More tools, more powers, more of the world to explore. But it's a great game and if you liked the first one (and feel like playing it for another 30 hours) you should definitely check this out.

Currently playing: Inazuma Eleven, and that post is going to be a lot more negative than most of the previous ones from this year

Rhaknar said:

Im glad I went hard early in the year and hit the 40s fast because for the past month or so ive hit my yearly "im going to play this non-story game obcessively for a few months" with Heroes of the Storm (again) and those types of games (like Marvel Heroes or WoW or ESO previously) just suck 2-3 months out of my life.

Click to expand...

Are you me?!

I'm still slowly chipping away at this. haha

Original Post

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6. Puyo Puyo Tetris
I have to admit, I'm playing this more than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Always been a huge Tetris player but still need to work on becoming faster on my T-Spins and Perfect Clears to compete online. My ranking online fluctuates in the top 40 of California and 1000 worldwide.

Main post

#25 Resident Evil 7 (PC) - 8 hours 20 min



Great game. Got ending 2 ill probably give it another playthrough at some point and check out the extra content.

main post

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After years of not feeling any need to replay FF3, I got back to it due to FF anniversary marathon I'm doing. And I went from just not particularly liking this game to hating it. IDK why SE decided to make that Jack of all trades achievement, unless they hate us, there is no other explanation.
So it was my grinding the game of the year, hopefully I'll have more fun with other FFs.

Original Post

22) Gears of War 2 - 10 hours - 5/21
After playing through ODST, I felt like jumping into another 360 shooter and playing Gears 2. I enjoyed it a lot more than the original and they did a great job mixing up some of the locales and not letting you get bored. At some point I'll play through 3 and Judgement as well before getting 4.

Shovel Knight
Platform: Switch
Time: 6:43
Date: 05.19
Score: (4/5)

Awesome game. I love the art, the combat, the music, and the thin story. I love how much it feels and looks like Mega Man, while also having a very unique identity that's all its own. The only complaint I can muster is that money loses its value too early in the game. This could have been fixed by including more unlocks and upgrades, but it is what it is.

Void Pyramid
Platform: Android
Time: 7:03
Date: 05.21
Score: (4/5)

This is an old-school RPG that's actually more of a puzzle game than anything. There are random encounters, but the encounter rate is pretty low and most enemies die in one round (otherwise you probably shouldn't be in that area yet). The story is very understated, and yet somehow by the end I had a clear idea of what the entire universe is: Your character is trapped within the Void Pyramid, a vast structure floating in outer space. Your task is to escape from the Void Pyramid with your life, whatever the cost. It is a mix of bleak future sci-fi and ancient Egyption mythology, which is both cool and unique.

Void Pyramid is one of the most unique things I've played in a long time. Initially, it didn't seem like something I was really going to like, especially since I don't play much on my phone. However, I ended up beating most of it over a period of two days, where I just sat there and plugged away at it. It was strangely addicting, with a nice challenge level and an easy amount of grinding.

Full List

April cont.

32. Volume - 7 hrs

I greatly enjoyed the gameplay of this tight little stealth game. Pure mechanics.

33. Refunct - 1 hr

Could've been longer, as I love just jumping around in games, which is all this is.

34. Hidden Folks - 3 hrs

Where's Waldo 2017....I like the art, but could've been a little more varied with the scenery manipulation.

May

35. GNOG - 2 hrs

Fun while it lasted. I love fiddling with puzzle boxes.

36. Abzu - 2 hrs

The sequences swimming with whales plastered a smile across my face. Actual gameplay was less entrancing.

37. Cosmic Star Heroine - 14 hrs

40 hrs of content crammed into 14. I enjoyed this, but the pacing is crazy. You could cut half of the characters and both lose nothing much and gain more time for character development. I guess KS promises probably forced their hand. With that in mind it's incredibly admirable and the battle system needs to return.

38. Little Nightmares - 4 hrs

Artistically great, gameplay wise, frustrating and clunky. Hated so much of it.

39. Trails in the Sky the 3rd - 48 hrs

My favorite Trails game so far. I love the odd structure and bite size storytelling. Top Ten for sure.

40. Yooka-Laylee - 20 hrs

I liked this game way more than I thought I would. Early parts of the stages were pretty great, but as the game went on just making it to 100 felt like a drag and the game felt empty(despite there being 50 more somewhere). The bosses are the worst designed ever. I would like to see a sequel refine this and tighten it up.

41. The Dream Machine - 12 hrs

After 6+ years on my Steam account, I replayed the early chapters of this and finished the newly released final few. It's overall a pretty great package. There's some dud puzzles but also some fantastic ones, and that creepy clay art is constantly entertaining.

41 games / 522 hrs

17. The Room
~4 Hours
It was a solid time-waster, but nothing that will stay with me for long.
2/5

18. NieR: Automata
~30 Hours
Overall I liked the game, but at times I felt its structure stood in its own way. The gameplay is solid, but was never as satisfying as I would have wished it to be. I liked the world and basic story, the ideas behind it all. Disappointed in the make-up of the second act.
3/5

Plan for the Future in the next few month
Final Fantasy VI
Yakuza Kiwami

Still working on
Final Fantasy IV
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Final Fantasy XV (NEW)
Danganronpa 2: Reload (NEW/On Pause)
Final Fantasy VII (On Pause)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (On Pause)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (On Pause)
Persona 5 (On Pause)

#21 Persona 5
PS4, 117 hrs.
I like this game a lot, but it is probably my least favorite in the series. I love the return to negotiating, the guns the return to traditional SMT style gameplay. But I think the story starts strong af. The first palace is captivating but from there everything becomes more and more boring and generic. I like the twist, but it's so weird and late. I think the dungeons are kind if boring and often the game feels more confined and restricted. But a few things really didn't sit well with me. The adult-minor relationships are gross especially.

#22 Guitar Hero Live
PS4
I played through the live mode and it was fun. I forgot how much i enjoyed this genre.

#23 Wonder Boy(Girl) The Dragons Trap.
Switch
This game was so much fun. Muscle memory kicked in and everything was exactly where I remember it. Played it with new graphics but FM sound. So much fun.

#24 Bravely Default
3DS, 40ish hrs.
I've stop started this game a ton of times since release but I finally pushed through, though I ended it and broke the crystal at ch6. Didn't have the patience to get the true ending. It's failures late in the game are well documented, no need to retread.

21. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (15 hours)
A really fascinating mystery visual novel that loves to mess around with pseudoscience. The writing and puzzles are really good, plus Kurt Vonnegut references! The main character's English VA sounds really odd, though.

Full list to date.

22) Lollipop Chainsaw(PS3) 5/18, 5/20-5/21

I have enjoyed myself with this game for the most part. I actually appreciate the zany humor and nature of this game. The combat outside of the couple of frustrating framedrops when there are many zombies on a battlefield and the camera which often has enemies getting you off camera with attacks or getting so close that you cannot see entirely has been relatively fun. The boss battles are pretty swell and the dialogue is well acted even if you aren't necessarily buying into the game's crazy nature. There have been a surprisingly good amount of enemy and stage variety which for a last gen beat em up, is very much appreciated. This game has incorporated the usual beat em up mechanics, some racing esque portions, some rail gun portions, some other minigames.

However my biggest gripe with this game and it might be a fair or unfair one is that the chainsaw blaster portions force you to have to use a PS3 controller and sadly my PS3 controller routinely continues to bug out and hit start often so for the portions of the game that I need to use the chainsaw blaster, I am stuck with a fight between me and my controller and for a game that's less than 5 years old, not sure why the Dualshock 4 does not work all the way for this game. You can absolutely do the basics of the game but for some lousy reason, the chainsaw blaster games often bug up where the game routinely goes haywire with it's aiming. I took auto aim off, after it was previously on, made no difference. It would routinely not allow me to control where I want to aim and for Zombie Baseball, I was just button mashing L2 and R2 and got away with it but for portions that I HAD TO aim, I had to make the switch to the Dualshock 3 sadly. Sucks that I have to even do this though this was a last gen game so technically it was meant to be played from a last gen controller but games that have a few years on this one allow the full usage of the Dualshock 4. The game has some glitches like having my character just stay in one place until I button mash the circle button enough to just move and after beating the 3rd stage the loading screen senseless just staying for a few minutes before I pressed some buttons and got it to progress.

I am playing this on Hard Mode and outside of having 3 lollipops instead of 5 and having additional zombies in certain parts, I don't think the game is all too difficult outside of the aforementioned frustrating elements. I feel like the game is more than generous with its health refill lollipops.

Should you play it? Yay or Nay?

The game was absolutely enjoyable for the most part but once again the game's inability to fully adapt to the Dualshock 4 and essentially forcing me to to play with my busted Dualshock 3 which causes a pause in the game every other minute it felt like really really hurt this for me and it's not necessarily the game's fault. Besides that this game was very much enjoyable, I do agree it is the right length and I think it is such a good compliment to Persona 5 for me. The combat was very, very top notch, the zany humor was in good fun and the game wasn't just a beat em up as it complimented so many elements to the game from rail gun shooting to chainsaw racing to other wacky minigames. If you can get this for 20 bucks or below go for it, you'll have a solid weekend with this game. Game does offer up multiple playthroughs to fully upgrade Juliet and get her some brand new skills.

I did get the bad ending though



23) Earthworm Jim HD(XBOX360 via XB1) 5/21-5/22

This is a game I hadn’t played since I was about 7 or maybe 8 years old so this was a flashback from a game I really liked two decades ago. It was going to be a matter of how well it holds up, here in 2017 after countless platformers have went after it and have incorporated its own quirky humor in it and I must say that this game still holds up very well. Yes it is a very short game, maybe clocking you a little under 2 hours if you know what you are doing. There’s not much to the game and it is simple to an extent but the levels do provide some difficulty such as For Pete’s Sake and In The Lab where the gimmick/premise of the level can be somewhat annoying even to expert players.

The HD remaster was pretty well done though they did change the voice of Earthworm Jim(Which I kinda like). There was an opening comic book scene to give backstory as to the Earthworm Jim character though I kinda wish there was more of those comic book scenes for each level, the game looks cool for its time and there’s a high score system involved and the best part is there’s a way to play each level you’ve beaten . This is great for if you blow your lives and continue and would not need to be forced to play the game again from the start. There’s a differentiation of difficulty from easy to normal to hard(Which I played) to the original SNES/Genesis/PC Earthworm Jim challenge so there’s enough variety with its difficulty for long time fans and newcomers to get along with.

Tommy Tallarico absolutely kills this series with such great music, one of the most underrated OSTs in video game history IMHO. New Junk City, Ascension, and Snot a problem are problem my top 3 if I had to choose with Buttville and Psycrow’s battle to round out a top 5 of this games’ soundtrack.

Should You Play It? Yay or Nay
“Ohhh Yeahhh”. The game is so quirky, simple enough and the HD remaster does enough to make it worth a purchase in my eyes where it doesn’t completely destroy the game and the reasons people adore the game. Cool level design, cool characters, it’s worth it for the couple of hours you’ll get out of it. It still holds up well for me. Add in some new secret levels and I THINK an Earthworm Jim 2 level and you got some new goodies in this HD remaster that didn’t previously exist.

Main Post

Game #8 - MLB 17 The Show (PS4)

Every year this game is great, and this year is no exception. Dropping PS3 support made a huge difference visually, and the new ball physics inexplicably make hitting a more satisfying experience. I also think the Road to the Show updates are cool, Retro Mode is fun, and the Franchise addition (while not things I would use) work perfectly for what they are. I'm worried about the way this franchise is going with the increasing focus on Diamond Dynasty, but until the horrible day when everything except for that Pay to Win bullshit is inevitably stripped out, I'm going to keep pouring hours upon hours into this franchise. Go Yankees!

Game #9 - Night in the Woods (PS4)

My early GOTY. Night in the Woods is a fantastic game. It does a much better job with characterization than most other games out there. The game treats the protagonist Mae in a way that is neither too sympathetic or overly critical, because the writer understands the nuances in the story she's telling. This, along with the best "young person dialogue" I've seen in a game, results in a set of characters that feel real. The slow pacing also helps with this, giving you the chance to know the characters naturally and through a lot of no-stakes scenarios. A lot of people would probably hate Night in the Woods, but those people would be wrong.

Game #10 - Trials Fusion (PS4)

It's a good Trials game. The addition of tricks is nice but not game-changing. It's a good Trials game.

Game #11 - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (PS4/Vita)

Another really good expansion. I think that the wall-climbing mechanic is really weird and the story isn't as charming as Plague of Shadows, but I had a bunch of fun with Specter of Torment, and it further solidifies Shovel Knight's masterpiece status. I really like how the slash mechanic subverts your muscle memory from playing Shovel Knight, because you have to be under an object to go up while in Shovel Knight you have to be above it to do the downward strike and bounce up. It's really clever design.

12. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (PS4/Vita)

I get why people don't like this expansion, because it's super weird. I like it because it's super weird. Plague of Shadows plays differently from every other platformer I've played. The ideas are truly unique and well implemented. I especially like how customizable your move-set is, allowing for a lot of experimentation. Also, the romance between Plague Knight and Mona is absolutely adorable, and I like how they made the expansion run parallel to the main game.

13. Steamworld Dig (Vita)

I don't like it as much as some people do. I love the ideas, but I don't think the game does enough with them. And it's not even a matter of the game being too short but of the upgrades not being consistently interesting enough. I had a fun time with the game though, and I look forward to seeing what they do with a sequel.

Quick question... With an immense backlog... How the heck do you pick which game to attack first. Smh

Stealthcobra said:

Quick question... With an immense backlog... How the heck do you pick which game to attack first. Smh

Click to expand...

I loaded my backlog into Grouvee and use the Tell Me What to Play (Random) feature to pick games to play. Figuring out what to play was always the hardest part of working on my backlog.

Stealthcobra said:

Quick question... With an immense backlog... How the heck do you pick which game to attack first. Smh

Click to expand...

In my case...
Well first I arranged all my steam games into categories such as Action, Adventure, PnC, Shooter, etc.
Right now I am alphabetically going through my Action Category on Steam. Granted I take breaks but I mainly just...play them. If I get bored or frustrated I call it quits and move onto another game.
Furthermore I've been clearing my PnC Backlog so I'd be playing an Action game and a PnC game as a breather kind of thing.

It's how I reached 100 completed games so fast for one thing :V
Also helps that I have a bunch of arcade games on PS3, Vita and PC that can be beaten in under 2 hours.

Wo33er said:

Yeah a meager 110 games within 5 months is pretty lackluster.

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Well it does distract from playing all those short games I have for one thing, plying short rounds of ARAM can be pretty addicting XP. Like if I want to get my ass to play Uncharted 2 in order to finish it already, I can fire up LoL for a quick round of ARAM...and then I'm hooked :V

Original Post:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=227490154&postcount=223



This is a short indie Action Platformer, somewhat inspired by the PS2 era of platformers. It reminds me of Jak and Daxter only more lighter and waaay simpler. The game can be beaten in 2 hours if you go for the main game, but there are some collectables in the form of freeing Loa, which I didn't bother with.
Still for $10 I did enjoy it for how short it is and it is a harmless 'baby's first 3D platformer' too.

Stealthcobra said:

Quick question... With an immense backlog... How the heck do you pick which game to attack first. Smh

Click to expand...

With me the moment just has to be right. I won't force myself to play something. I have to feel out what I'm in the mood for and then pick a game based on those current feelings. I try to mix up genre and story based/gameplay focused games to keep it fresh as well.

All posts index

Master List - here
Games 1 - 19 Comments - here
Finished With But Incomplete Games / Beta Tests - here

___________
Game #20: Cruis'n USA - Midway/Williams - N64 - ★★☆☆☆
Completion State:
Completed the cross country cruise event.

Comments:
After pulling out the N64 for some friends recently and since the CRT is set-up in my office for my SNES I thought why not pull out some of my other old carts and Cruis'n USA was first up.

I have great memories of this game, both in the arcade and at home and but it doesn't hold up all that well. Without any nostalgia I'm not sure most people would get a lot out of this. That said, it's still fun enough and completing the cross country cruise event doesn't take too long at all.

Weirdly, though World holds up better mechanically I think I prefer the style of this one but it's mostly rose tinted specs I suspect.

___________
Game #21: Cruis'n World - Midway/Eurocom - N64 - ★★☆☆☆
Completion State:
Completed the cross country cruise event and all championships.

Comments:
Driving feels better than in USA. USA feels like it should be played with the dpad, World feels like it should be played with the thumb stick. Weirdly though there is no way to map accelerate to the trigger.

Races are a little bit harder overall than in USA but neither are massively challenging.

The tracks are a little more interesting but so terribly corny in their portrayal of each locale (there's possibly an interesting discussion in here about how realism in games goes a long way to increase the shades of grey available to an artist in depicting a place or sense of place). And the music, oh my, the music. It's hilarious. Brilliantly of it's time.

Overall, it's OK but time isn't kind to most racing games. Oh, and I'm still not sure why after Cruis'n the World we then go Cruis'n on the but it makes for an incredible cut scene in the context of modern graphics.

Now we're Cruis'n.

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Game #22: Cruis'n Exotica - Midway/Gratuitous Games - N64 - ★★☆☆☆
Completion State:
Completed the cross country Exotica event and all challenges.

Comments:
Cruis'n World turned up to 11. Not too much new here apart from some weird tracks. The handling feels a tiny bit different but not enough to really change the gameplay.

Oh, and this time we go Cruis'n on .

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Game #23: Oik - Dr_Crewcut - PC - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed all levels

Comments:
Very short (~70mins) very cheap (<£1) but good fun simple physics puzzle game. Get the blue block to the blue platform and eliminate the red blocks. Nothing too taxing here but still got a couple of "ooohs" out of me as I worked out what to do to get my blue block to propel itself across the screen towards it's destination and the solution.

Apparently very like another game called Zup so I'm going check that out at some point.

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Game #24: VOI - Yunus Ayyildiz - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed all levels

Comments:
A simple in scope but often pretty challenging puzzle game if geometric puzzles aren't your thing. It is a layered tangram of sorts but instead of using blocks next to each other to form a shape or pattern you layer a black shape on a black shape making any intersecting area white. The ultimate aim of creating a target shape remains the same however.

It could have perhaps done with the scope of the puzzles changing as you go through the levels in more interesting ways. Despite it being quite short I think if there were slightly fewer levels with the complexity or size increased as you reached the end I would have felt more satisfied.

I enjoyed my time with it though. Good stuff.

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Game #25: Oik 2 - Dr_Crewcut - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed all levels

Comments:
Oik but with balls.

The occasional unpredictability of circles mean you may have to do the same level a couple of times to achieve the desired effect but overall it's not a huge issue and I only experienced on one level in particular.

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Game #26: Dying Light - Techland - PS4 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed main story and a fair number of scene setting sidequests (60% trophy completion)

Comments:
Movement is great and the weapon variety is pretty cool but the combat needs a tiny bit more depth to make it as interesting as the traversal. The story is actually pretty passable, fairly trite but it clips along at a good pace with the usual range of open world side quests to add some more depth and context.

All in all really good but it should be really great. It's so close to being everything I want from an open world zombie survival type game but just doesn't hold my attention quite enough. It's good enough to make me want to play the DLC though and to mark this down as one to replay again in the future.

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Game #27: Game Corp DX - Endless Loop Studios - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Moved through all cities, won all awards, completed all hints and made a BILLION DOLLARS.

Comments:
Simple but fairly fun management sim/clicker. Not much challenge once you understand the formula and not quite enough depth to get me coming back for another playthrough.

Good value for the price just needs a little more depth and a little more style to push it to the next tier.

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Game #28: F1 2016 - Codemasters - PS4 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed several career seasons (78% trophy completion).

Comments:
The first F1 game I have played in a while and it's good to see the series remains pretty good. I did a number of seasons in a number of cars and the driving and racing all feels pretty good. My only real issue with the general game setup is the way upgrade points are stacked a little towards practise sessions (via the team goals and the three different practise routines you're supposed to run). These are unfortunately but perhaps obviously the least thrilling part of a race weekend, at least after your first season so if you want to upgrade the car you have to slog through these.

Regardless, all in all a good game and since I don't play the multiplayer much in these games, great value with F1 2017 nearly out.
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Game #29: Cook, Serve, Delicious! - Vertigo Gaming Inc - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Five star restaurant , Iron Cook champ and a few Hungry Festivities done (26 hours, 42% Steam achievements).

Comments:
Enjoyed this one but it perhaps out-stayed it's welcome towards the end with a fairly limited amounts of food and drink, a problem supposedly resolved by the soon to be released sequel.

Playing on mouse and keyboard, essentially the game is a challenge of learning the keyboard shortcuts for each ingredient and being both precise and quick in applying this knowledge to orders as they come in. For such a simple concept it is surprisingly intense and fast moving particularly during rush hours and especially with complex dishes on your menu.

The game, though graphically undemanding, has a lovely and very cohesive style. My only criticism here would be that as I progressed through the star ratings I did find myself wishing for a little more variety in the backdrops and maybe three or four extra customer models but I believe this is also being addressed in the upcoming sequel.

Also worth mentioning is the soundtrack that is surprisingly catchy. I found myself tapping my foot more than a few times playing this and when you find a rhythm with both the tunes and the frantic pace it's pretty zen like!

I have a lot of hope for the sequel and fully expect that to address my criticisms and push this up from a really good game to a great one. Great job Chubigans, looking forward to picking up Cook, Serve Delicious! 2!!

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Game #30: Dying Light: The Following - Techland - PS4 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed main story and a fair number of scene setting sidequests (83% trophy completion)

Comments:
Those endings! Kind of glad I chose despite the obvious consequences.

Huge for a DLC and whilst it loses what arguably the best part of the main game, the parkour, I love the new locale and the more fantastical story. The buggy is cool and hooning about the countryside is a ton of fun. It's not just more Dying Light and, perhaps due to it's shorter length and more open environment, I think I actually prefer it.

The two styles combined in a sequel? Yes please.
___________
Game #31: hocus - Yunus Ayyildiz, Sho Ohhira - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed all levels (3.8 hours, 100% Steam achievements)

Comments:

From same dev as VOI, with a very similar aesthetic. This time it's Escher impossible construction puzzle levels. Basically get the red cube to the red marker navigating the impossible architecture to change your plane.

There's a 100 levels, the first 50 levels are from the developer, and the second 50 are a curated set from user created levels (made in the functional but esoteric map creator). The levels themselves can initially seem mind melting but ultimately can be solved via trial and error path choice or just working backwards from the goal.

It's good enough but I think I preferred VOI.
___________
Game #32: Banished - Shining Rock Software LLC - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Made a few successful communities and a lot of unsuccessful ones! (61 hours, 2% Steam achievements [note: using mods that disable achievements])

Comments:
- Simple in principle, hard in practise ye olde town sim
- Not quite enough building variation, even with mods
- Pretty initially but the lack of variation soon becomes an issue

___________
Game #33: BalanCity - Fernando Cordoba - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed most missions and scenarios as well as a bit of free build (18 hours, 50% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- City building with an interesting spin
- Piling blocks on top of one another to create a city is remarkably fun and the great thing is, even when you fail the game still itches a scratch that we all have innate in us from our toddler days... watching a big tower of blocks crash to the ground!
- A good number of missions and scenarios to play, most of which will provide a decent challenge to all but the most adept block stackers.
- Also has a free build mode where you can tailor the amount of challenge through increasing/increasing the rate that disasters hit.
- Disasters are pretty fun to watch, especially the giant green monsters that rampages through your city causing hilarious havoc.

___________
Game #34: Cannabalt - Finji, Kittehface Software - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed all scenarios and some free running (1.6 hours, 54% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- Classic runner.
- Great soundtrack, great art design and wicked pace combined with simple one button game play make for a fun, if short lived, game.
- Running into boxes to control your pace adds some depth but ultimately, regardless of what you do, this game will always be balancing skill/reactions with luck.
___________
Game #35: Half-Life - Valve - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed all levels (26 hours).

Comments:
- First time in forever playing an FPS on PC so why not start with what I'm told is a classic.
- Not sure it has aged that well but still plays pretty well.
- No idea about the story as the sound mixing is bad you can't adjust voices specifically in the settings and I can never hear what anyone is saying.
- Love playing an FPS with a mouse, not so much a keyboard.
- Level design is linear with a smattering of secrets and possible backtracking but there's not much incentive to explore a great deal beyond, "how do I get to the next door?". Later levels change this up a bit although it sticks to exploration being required to solve the puzzle of how do I get to the next area rather than exploration for explorations sake.
- The final boss fight is probably the most fun part of the game. A few more of these kinds of encounters would have been appreciated.
___________
Game #36: Car Mechanic Simulator 2014 - PlayWay S.A. / Red Dot Games - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed a bunch of jobs in the main game, a few in the 4 x 4 mode and most of the 1/4 mile jobs (9.7 hours).

Comments:
- Surprisingly fun.
- Presumes basic knowledge of how a car works and doesn't really attempt to teach the user what any of the parts do or how it hangs together.
- Jobs get increasingly complex but the basic concept doesn't change. There's a lot here in terms of content (76 standard jobs, 19 4 x 4 jobs, 17 1/4 mile jobs) but I'm not sure how much it most people are going to want to do.
- Progression in terms of earning money and three garage locale upgrades but these are done without any ceremony so it's fairly meaningless.
- The two add-ons are mildly interesting. The tuning one more than the 4 x 4 for me but that is where my interest lies generally so perhaps that makes sense.
- Good enough for me to want to try the sequels if they're not just more of the same with prettier graphics.
___________
Game #37: Fortnite: Battle Royale - Epic - PS4 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Got my win and umbrella, played a bit of solo, duo and squad.

Comments:
- Initially really good fun but it's all a bit to simplified to hold me too long as it is now.
- After a reasonable amount of matches I feel I've seen most of what I can see in terms of both exploration and play style.
- I'll probably keep checking back now and then to see what updates bring but I was hoping it would hook me and replace PS2 as my go to multiplayer game but it's not quite there yet.
___________
Game #38: Samorost 3 - Amanita Design - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Rid the world of the evil monk and returned home to my dog (4.3 hours, 100% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- Mellow point and click puzzle game.
- Lovely to look at, nice soundtrack and some charming touches.
- Pretty obscure puzzles but a fun play through all in all.
- Coolest looking melon munching anteater in games.
___________
Game #39: Mafia III - Hangar 13, 2K Czech - PS4 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed the story (90% trophy completion)

Comments:
Replay, initial comments here. I think the mission structure hurts a little more on a replay but I still enjoyed this second play through.
___________
Game #40: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - Cyberdreams - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed the story a few times and saw several endings (7.4 hours).

Comments:
- The darkest and perhaps most finickity point and click game I've ever played.
- Crazily obscure puzzles.
- Still not managed to truly figure out the "spiritual barometer" enough to get all the way through the end game and see the good ending. This is one game where Youtube is really handy given the number of times you may otherwise end up replaying the game.
- I really must read the book now.
___________
Game #41: Planetside 2 - Daybreak Game Company - PS4 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;
Completion State:
Played a lot of each faction and have thoroughly explored each class.

Comments:
- NOTE: Been playing this on and off for years now, not sure that I will ever consider it complete but I am moving to PC and don't intend to start again at this late stage of the game so I'm pretty much retiring my characters.
- Technically can see why some would avoid on consoles (low FPS, low tick rate, average graphics) but I love it and the sheer scale more than makes up for any technical limitations.
- Not for everyone though and I get that, it's not a round based shooter so consistency of experience is different.
- It's war. And sometime war isn't just the close quarters shooting
- Can be slow paced when numbers are low or fights are spread across the map but at it's busiest, holy shit!
- Fuck the TR
___________
Game #42: Cat Goes Fishing - Cat5Games - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Caught a bunch of fish (10.5 hours, 71% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- Relaxing fishing game with a surprising amount of depth (boom boom).
- Decent variety of fish to catch, good progression curve, a few techniques to master.
- Good fun.
___________
Game #43: Technobabylon - Technocrat Games / Wadjet Eye Games - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed the story (10.2 hours, 70% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- Cool sci-fi point and click adventure game.
- Puzzles that are reasonably clear for a PnC.
- Some narrative oddness but so far all making sense and rolling along at a decent pace.
- Story touches on some interesting Ai/learning concepts and by extension humanity.
- I really enjoyed it overall. Good style, passable story, good sounds, nice voice work.
___________
Game #44: Stories Untold - No Code / Devolver Digital - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Completion State:
Completed the story (4 hours, 100% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- Throw back to old text adventures but with a lovely sense of style on top. Great puzzles and just a really nice set of short story based experiences. Lovely stuff.
- Probably my favourite story telling in games.
- Some comments regarding each individual part are below. They contain spoilers.
- Part 1 - The House Abandon
- Very short but quite effective twist on a short coming home story.
- Less obscure than many text adventures of the past with limited commands but this makes it more enjoyable to me, searching for the right verb in these types of game is a pain.
- Love the visual style and it definitely adds something to the game.
- Part 2 - The Lab Conduct
- More obscure than the previous chapter in terms of solving the lab puzzles but everything you need is in the manual.
- Nice segue back to the first chapters text adventure style. There is again an additional layer of vagueness here but in this part I think it adds to the atmosphere. You are after all dealing with what is presented as an .
- Very effective short story telling in this part and nice voice acting.
- Part 3 - The Station Process
- Love the puzzle solving in this part. Using the old microfilm manual is cool, brings back all the annoyances from using these in libraries back in the day! Also, any game that uses a flow chart in an appendix of a manual as a game play device is alright by me.
- Had to download a tool to hold up to my speakers to solve a particular puzzle in this part but to be fair you could use the instructions/guide in game if you were patient enough, I'm just crap at listening well enough to translate !
- Love the final scene in this part, it's very different to the presentation up to this point. . Made me leap straight into part 4 mind you.
- Story is gripping and the presentation (including the foley work) is just as stylish as the previous parts and again has some lovely voice acting.
- Part 4 - The Last Session
- Takes story telling perspective and turns it on it's head whilst bringing the whole game together.
- I flinched when back in the lab and the and felt internally disgusted when I realised I was and couldn't do anything to not take .
- Though the actual final scenes are a little under par the concept and execution more generally more than makes up for it.
___________
Game #45: Grey Cubes - Deion Mobile - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed all 60 levels (6.5 hours, 69% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- Cool physics block breaker.
- Lot's of levels with all the usual block breaker twists.
- Quite like the visual style.
- Good casual fun.

___________
Game #46: City Climber - SimpleGhost - PC - &#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;
Completion State:
Completed all 14 levels and all 10 stages of 2 of 5 challenge areas (3.4 hours, 83% Steam achievements)

Comments:
- Simple physics climbing game with lovely presentation.
- Concept is probably better than the execution but it is mostly fun none the less.
- 14 levels within the story mode (with time based leaderboards) and then 5 additional challenges made of 10 stages each on top of these.
- Not sure the challenges so far are that fun but the levels are cool. One or two control nuances make it a little less enjoyable than it ultimately could be. It feels as though in some areas there are not only arbitrarily decided handholds but also arbitrarily decided hands you must use and that can be a little frustrating.
- The challenges feel a little too like random chance will dictate whether you complete it or not rather than ultimately where you position your character (finished on stage 3 of the crazy cart challenge area).
- Cool little thing that I'm glad I tried and will certainly be keeping an eye on further projects from the developer.

Stealthcobra said:

Quick question... With an immense backlog... How the heck do you pick which game to attack first. Smh

Click to expand...

Try for some variety. I am juggling a JRPG right now in Persona 5 so naturally going with a platformer like Earthworm Jim HD or Gex Enter the Gecko goes a long way to compliment it. Also threw in a action beat em up like Lollipop Chainsaw for good measures so I am not stuck in just one game and forcing myself to plow through one game.

Having a long game to go alongside 3 quicker games like the aforementioned is how I go about it.

When I do Red Dead Redemption, another longer game....i'll want to compliment it with quicker games or maybe even a visual novel.

+75h. All 120 Shrines completed, all Memories found, only did the sidequests I found along the way.

Breath of the Wild is not a Zelda game. The story is an afterthought compared to the inmensity of Hyrule. Dungeons are accessory, Shrines themselves are usually short and boring, and you can complete the game without finding the Master Sword and without having Link don his traditional green garb. Unlike normal Zelda games, which hold your hand sweetly through the story, BOTW is merciless and will kick you to the curb dozens of times, particularly when you're still trying to learn the ropes.

Breath of the Wild is a Zelda game. Everyone is there. The Zora, the Goron, the Death Mountain, Ganon and the Princess. Your duty is clear: rescue the Princess, kill the big bad guy and save the world. It's a Zelda game on the purest sense of the word, the direct heir to the first Legend of Zelda, setting you against a hostile, beautiful world with almost no background and little more than a sword and some tricks up your sleeve.

BotW is both a Zelda game and not a Zelda game. It's a rara avis, an experiment with open-world games. However you want to see it, though, it's a totally unmissable game.

My Score: &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;

Original Post

Knack

Misjudged. From the choice of voice actor for the titular character to the "How'd Ya Like Me Now?" dance off over the end credits, it's the only word that comes to mind.

Sometimes it felt like the game was going out of it's way to be unlikable. Can't believe it's getting a sequel, are Japan Studio that short of stuff to do?

Second part of my May games:

Game 17: Snake Pass - 3/5 - more than 10:00 hours (21/04/2017)

Completed the campaign. The initial impact was bad: the controls are hard to master and the game doesn't do a good enough job explaining how the "grip" ability works; however once I got the "grip" down the game opened up for me, the frustration went out of the window and I breezed through the levels getting all the collectibles in one go. That is until the last level, which features a huge difficulty spike all of a sudden: the way the wind works is simply unfair to you, and for the first time since I mastered the controls I felt the urge to thow the Switch out of the window. The difficulty is also mostly due to the camera-work, which isn't perfect throughout the game, but mostly bearable, until you reach the last world, when every obstacle begins to move around and the camera just keep getting stuck and in the way of what you're trying to do. Speaking of the end-game, it was utterly disappointing: the last world has one less level than the rest, so you don't even realize you're playing the last level until you see the ending sequence. The ending itself was upsetting, during the whole adventure, the game keeps building up to the "big baddy", responsible for what's happening; now I guessed there would be no classic "final boss" in such a game, but still I expected some kind of confrontation, yet nothing: the whole thing resolves in a comic and frankly stupid way. All the levels have the same objectives till the end, so you don't feel any real progression during the campaign, or accomplishment when finishing the game: you get a bunch of skins and the ability to see where the remaining collectibles are (too bad you most likely 100% all the levels, because doing them in more than one go is a pain, due to having to get the three gems every time). The basic idea is genius, but they haven't developed it in enough meaningful ways: they could have done much more with it.

This game is:

+

Click to expand...

Game 18: The Cave [replay with friend] - 2/5 - 5:30 hours (23/04/2017)

Finished the game a second time with one old and two new characters. On a second playthough the game shows his weak side: you have to redo all the common parts and also redo some specific parts, if you choose a character you already picked (which you'll have to do on your second or third time playing, because they're seven and you got to pick three at a time). The puzzles aren't particularly difficult, but they sometimes work in weird ways (e.g. the recorder), contradicting what you've learnt up to that point. There's also quite a lot backtracking involved and the characters don't exactly move quick. The ending is a huge let-down, the characters aren't developed in game, but just with the static pictures (their memories) you find around. Disappointing, moreso the second time playing through.

This game is:

+

Click to expand...

Game 19: SteamWorld Heist - 4/5 - 25:00 hours (23/04/2017)

Got max reputation and completed the campaign, missing quite a few hats. The game starts slow and without many strategic options, it also takes a while to really take off, since the first part lasts way too much, becoming pretty monotone, recycling enemies and settings constantly. Another annoying obstacle to one's enjoyment of the adventure is the inventory box system: you can only keep so many items and weapons at once, and you have to sell the rest for money, until you slowly find the means to upgrade the inventory itself; that, paired with the steady arrival of new recruits to your team, makes it so you always feel you don't have enough choice of equipment for your crew. The story is serviceable, the characters are unique both in personality and skills, so that you'll want to use them all and the soundtrack is top notch (thanks to Steam Powered Giraffe); but what really shines is the tactical gameplay: it works flawlessly and you can't stop playing, wishing for one more level after the other.

This game is:

+

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Main post

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19. Bayonetta - 11 hours
Honestly, after Nier i didn't expected much and bought Bayonetta only to support SEGA ports. I mean, i knew this game was good, but i wasn't prepared that it'll be THAT good. Gameplay, visuals, design, music, everything is simply perfect. This game is hard as hell even on normal difficulty, it's not allowing mindless button mash and required perfect timings for every move, but it's still extremely fun and satisfying. Every battle is pure joy to play, level design and story are crazy but absolutely awesome, and Bayonetta are so cool protagonist. Also, i thought it'll be another brown game from 00's, but visuals holds up surprisingly well, variety of levels and locations are really impressive. My only complain about Bayonetta is episode when you need to control rocket and avoid projectiles, this section is way too long and boring. But few minor issues aside, Bayonetta is amazing and has become one of my most favorite games i've ever played. I'm ready for Vanquish, bring it on!

My main post.


14 | Mirror's Edge Catalyst | PS4
~12 hours | Completed May 24th

For years I wanted a sequel to Mirror's Edge and when they finally showed a teaser at E3 in 2013 I was so goddamn happy, but as more information started to surface my excitement began to fade. I totally skipped the game when it launched but about two weeks ago I decided it's finally time to check it out. Welp, I beat the story and did a decent amount of optional stuff around the city and... I'm not sure if I'll return to it anytime soon. Disappointing for sure. The open world is quite hit or miss, I much preferred the linear level structure of the original game. These stupid upgrades, gadgets and "gridleaks" are not what I wanted from Mirror's Edge. The story was even more forgettable and worse than in the first one. Combat is frustrating and feels unnecessary - especially in the (thankfully few) forced arena fights. Online components feel tacked on and reminded me of the 2012 SSX game (not a compliment). Very few cool setpieces in the main missions and climbing The Shard didn't feel satisfying because of the constant Mag Rope "platforming." Things I actually liked in the game: movement feels fluid (albeit a bit floaty), the city still looks very nice and lush, Solar Fields' soundtrack is good, framerate holds up in most parts and there's an FOV slider even on consoles. I could ramble on and on about the game but all in all, it is an alright but ultimately disappointing revival of one of my favourite games from recent years. I'm glad I finally played it though.

Original post

Game 12: Quantum Break
Platform: Xbox One
I liked the time travel theme and gameplay, characters not so much.

Game 13: Infamous: Second Son
Platform: PS4
A step down from the second game, especially Delsin who is extremely obnoxious and annoying.

Game 14: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Platform: PS4
While I enjoyed it, the walking speed killed some of it. Definitely not repayable imo.

Original post


15. Hidden my game by mom! (Android, 2016) - 0:43
Escaped.

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I downloaded this. All I knew was that a couple of people had mentioned it on the internet and that it was weird. Ideally, that's all you should really know when you play this too.

It's not a long or particularly involving game. What it is, though, is cheeky, and it flirts ever so slightly with subverting conventions. And that's about all I'm going to say. You can finish this in one long train ride, and you'll very likely have a smile on your face throughout. What more can you ask from a free game?

Original Post

16. Prey - 8/10, 22 hours
I really loved Prey. It has a strange difficulty curve (brutal in the beginning and end, but kind of a breeze in the other 70% of the game) and at times suffers from sort of requiring you to invest in combat despite its "play your way" motto. On top of that, my combat investment was purely as a gunslinger and even then I had trouble, because ammo eventually became scarce and guns feel very weak even when fully upgraded. Despite my issues, I was pretty enthralled with Prey. I rented a copy and I fully intend on buying my own eventually. I loved exploring the world, and there was an absolute shitload of creative ways to traverse Talos and engage with the lore and characters within. This is a game I see myself revisiting quite a bit, it fascinated me and while it isn't the best game that came out this year, it's certainly one of my personal favorites.

17. Snipperclips - 6/10, 1 hour
Played this with my girlfriend. We both loved it but it was INCREDIBLY short. We beat almost everything in an hour and we were just absolutely shocked that it was done. The few puzzles we didn't beat were ones we knew how to complete but were just obnoxious to put into practice. The score is entirely a reflection of its length and cost, because by all other metrics Snipperclips should've been a standout title. It's just way too short, to the point $20 is actually kind of a steep asking price for it. 3 worlds, most of the puzzles are very easy and quick to solve, and we beat it in an hour. Satisfying yet disappointing.

18. Knack - 4/10, 8 hours
Best way to sum this game up - it felt like it was 8 hours too long, and we played it for 8 hours. It actually has a fair few fun moments throughout, and can be charming at times. Hell, I actually kind of like this game despite thinking it's bad. The story was laughably bad, which actually made it genuinely entertaining because it was often confusing as to what was going on or how certain characters even got to where they are. Everyone just kinda teleports around, to the point you wonder why Knack is even doing anything. Also, Knack talks for some reason, yet half the time the cast treats him like a silent protagonist. 75% of the time I enjoyed the game because of how bad it is, and the other 25% of the time I enjoyed it for the moments it showed actual potential and charm. I'm actually genuinely interested to see how the sequel turns out.

Unsure of played time, since I transferred my save from Origins to Steam around 10h in, and this seems to have confused both Steam and the in-game save feature. I calculate around 35h. All DLCs save for Awakening, which I'm treating as a separate game, and Witch Hunt/Golems of Amgarrak, which I'm completing after Awakening.

This is one of the oldest games in my backlog and I finally managed to complete it, after starting it four times: pirated for Xbox 360 (I was young) physical for 360, digital for PS3, Origins and now Steam. While the story is a cliche'd "End of the world as we know it" affair, it's a very well made world, with characters you care about, like Leliana, Morrigan or Alistair. It might not be as epic in scale as Mass Effect, but it's a better-than average RPG. Left me wanting more.

My Score: &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;

Original Post

Original post



This is a 2D Chinese Action game. It has a combo system where keeping the chain going on results in bonus attack damage inflicted on enemies. IT has some light traversing and platforming but in general the game's narrator has you following the arrow in order to reach the end of the game and defeat Judas, the final boss.
The game has an upgrade system and is mainly short but it has multiple endings which mainly involve Recommend it for fans of 2D action games and for $11 it is well worth it IMO.

Krooner said:

Knack

Misjudged. From the choice of voice actor for the titular character to the "How'd Ya Like Me Now?" dance off over the end credits, it's the only word that comes to mind.

Sometimes it felt like the game was going out of it's way to be unlikable. Can't believe it's getting a sequel, are Japan Studio that short of stuff to do?

Click to expand...

The core gameplay of Knack is OK, but the fact that it is longer than 2 hours for the main playthrough and for how soulless and uninspired the entire game design is, it really can't be said to be good at all. Just soulless and uninspired. Knack 2 could fix its many issues though so I'll give it a chance when it releases.

At best Knack is a subject for 'How to make a bad game'.

Main post



13 | Prey | PC
Time: 35 hours
Score: 9/10

The real star in Prey is not the combat or the story but it is the setting: Talos I. The space station is crafted with so much detail and layers that it feels like a real place, just waiting to be explored. From the lively Arboretum to the unsettling Psychotronics, the different areas of Talos I are a joy to wander around in. Secrets and human stories are buried in every corner of the station, making it feel even more lived in despite recent events.
The game is really well paced: first introducing you to the mechanics and gradually increasing the strength and quantity of the enemies. The further the game goes on, the more you will evolve into a certain direction. I went with a pure human playthrough, relying mainly on my trustworthy wrench and some fireweapons as auxiliaries. Later upgrades allowed me to make optimal use of the vertical design in Prey, just like in Dishonored.
The game isn't perfect however. You start off as a guy with a wrench out of his depth but like in many games you end up an alien murdering god. Resources should be a lot scarcer and some balancing could go a long way towards eliminating this feeling of being overpowered.
Prey was a real surprise for me and so far, without a doubt the best game of 2017.

22. CrossCells (2 hours)
Another great puzzle game from Matthew Brown, but this one could've done better to explain its rules.

Full list to date.

#26 Max Payne (PC) - 6 hours


Never played this before but I was pleasantly suprised. The game did need some unofficial patches to work properly on Windows 10 but it wasn't a big deal to fix the issues I had.
The bullet time mechanic is fun but without it it seemed like you die really easily even on the base difficulty.