<span class="bold">Deponia</span>

The most recent point and click games that I have played are The Walking Dead and The wolf Among Us, stuff like that. Deponia reminded me of the great games that I used to played a long time ago, games like Sam & Max and Syberia. With games like Deponia you have to think about what you are doing, the puzzles are real and very enjoyable, some of them are insane.
The game is visually stunning alongside a great soundtrack.

Complete list of games finished in 2016.

Ah, ok, going to check the steam forums and the release thread for some info, thanks.

Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 - and have whole rest of the year to finish "Priority Earth" on Mass Effect 3, though seemingly resist.

When I saw a good deal on the trilogy on Origin, had to finally take the plunge - even when I do not really immerse well in space setting, normally, and I am poor to mediocre in FPS gameplay!

And I love that series to distraction, now. The game-world, the lore, the races, the characters, the voice acting - just brilliant.

Think I improved a bit on combat, btw, but no-one deserves me in multiplayer, unless they also would look for mates whom want to transcend their natural game-play comfort zones, and take such challenge with interest and humour.

For example, MAKO physics were out of whack, as far as I can tell. Yet, I did laugh at myself when twice I managed to plunge myself unto a "critical mission failure" off from a ramp by hurtling a gun turret. On third time, I minded.

As I OP'ed, with passing of Harper Lee, I feel greater solidarity with that ending I am avoiding. I did not feel it was fair to Lee, with all this "in memoriam, "thx for the fish" (*) - but we will not accord you artistic integrity if it violates our head-canon about Finch."

I'm still expecting to hate it - hence the slow progress with "Priority Earth." And I overall also like ME & ME2 better, actually, for sure.


(*) bit world-weary Adams ref here, sorry.

Hitman 2 & 3. For some reason I dismissed / overlooked these games when they came out - how wrong I was ! Brilliant stealth games with some really memorable missions. Hopefully Blood Money can find its way on to GoG ? Right up there with the Thief and Splinter Cell games.

Just finished Witcher 3 for the first time.
Excellent RPG! I enjoyed it a lot.
I've yet started the DLC though.

My List

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PS3)

When reviewing Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, it's crucial to mention what platform you were playing on, because there have been two simultaneously released but differing versions of it. One for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and PSP, and another one for Wii and DS - which is a completely different game! I have no idea why Ubisoft made the stupid decision to name them both the same.

I've already played the Wii version in 2011 and have been thoroughly satisfied with it. Of course it's technically inferior due to the limited hardware power of the system, but I felt they succeeded in making the best possible game. Now I finally got to play the "big" version on PS3, and guess what: The Wii game is slightly better!

As usual in the series, acrobatics are the core gameplay element. You're climbing, jumping, swinging and wall-running your way through an old palace, avoiding traps and trying to undo the harm your brother has caused by unleashing an evil Jinn and his army of sand monsters. The main new feature of the... let's just call it HD version for the sake of simplicity, is the ability to freeze water, which opens up a bunch of new possibilities for clever environmental puzzles. As for fighting, the combat system seems to be inspired by the Arkham games and allows to fight multiple enemies at the same time, as distinctly opposed to the 2008 game in which you only fought one enemy at a time.

It's an overall good game with some minor, insignificant flaws. What makes the Wii game a tad better though is that they put more creativity in it. There's this German saying: "Ein gutes Pferd springt nur so hoch wie es muss." A good horse only jumps as high as it has to. And that's exactly what they did with the HD version of The Forgotten Sands. It's good, but not as great as it could have been if they had put more effort and thought into it.

-my 2016 list-

<span class="bold">Anna's Quest</span>

Published by Daedalic, but developed by Australian studio Krams Design, here's a 2D point'n'click adventure that could have been perfectly developed by the German graphic adventure powerhouse. Its graphics are perhaps a little bland but serviceable, the animation is certainly good, as is the soundtrack and the voice acting... except for the main character Anna's voice: I found it particularly grating (oh boy, those "Huh?") and I ended up hating her a little because of her voice. Well, also because of her actions (or rather, her inaction) in the later part of the game. I'm not gonna spoil anything but let's just say that she's given the opportunity to right a terribly misunderstood and long-standing wrong, but she does nothing about it and seems happy to go along with the crowd. As it seems, a sequel gets hinted at the very end of the final game credits; I really hope Anna has second thoughts in this hypothetical sequel and at least attempts to address her misdemeanour, otherwise I'll be very pissed about it all...

Anyway, going back to the game iself, I'd say it's a nice middle ground between the overflowing inventories and insanely devised puzzles of the point'n'click's of yore, and the minimalistic (if any) puzzles of the modern adventure games (I'm looking at you Telltale!). Even with the integration of Anna's telekinetic powers into the game mechanics, which could arguably introduce a whole new layer of complexity, I never got utterly stuck at any point in the game. The puzzles always felt quite logical, or at least as logical as they may be in a world embedded in magic and Germanic and Central European folklore, and the 6 chapters in which the story is divided are all self-contained both in goals, puzzles and objects. All in all, probably not a game for little kids due to its dark themes and situations, but perfectly suited for teenagers and above.

As an addendum, I've just discovered there's a freely available prologue for this game, but I couldn't try it because alas, it's Windows-only (and I didn't care that much as to meddle with Wine for it). In the developers' words, "[it] is a simple, short form ‘interactive fiction’ game that sets the backdrop for the story to come in Anna’s Quest". Though not essential, it seems like a good complement to the main game, as it tells certain things the later leaves unexplained.

My list of finished games in 2016

Dungeons: The Eye of Draconus

The dialog was amusing (if juvenile), the music was great, the game was short, and it gave you unlimited continues (AFAIK.) Those are the only good things about this beat-em-up.

Nice to see you guys running right into Mass Effect and Hitman. Both brilliant games.

Except Hitman Absolution, that sucked.

Recommendations;

Dead Rising 1, Silent Hill 2 and 3, Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, 4, Mechwarrior 4, Vagrant Story, Ninja Gaiden Black and 2, No One Lives Forever, Farcry 1, Fable, Bloodbowl, Evil Genius, Arma 2, Devil May Cry 3, Freedom Force, Manhunt, Bully, Startopia.

Find em, play em. Quit messing around.

Mass Effect (Xbox One)

I just finished the main story of Mass Effect. It was mostly great, but it was also aggravating at times. The combat felt strange and clunky at first, but when I got used to it I found it quite enjoyable. Enemies are automatically looted, which is pretty chill :D Some of the combat-aspect is very aggravating though, at least in my opinion. Geth stalkers are very annoying to fight, partly because the framerate would drop heavily during firefights (an artifact of Xbox Ones backwards compatibility). Having to spend 30 seconds skipping dialogue every time I die in a bossfight didn't make me too happy either :P I don't have many complaints about the Mako though. The controls for it were precise. The physics on it could get bugged sometimes, but nothing too bad.

Also, space exploration was cool! Exploring the galaxy, surveying planets, landing on them, it was a cool feature, with lots of potential. Still though, aside from the planets visited in the main story, it didn't seem like there were many planets that could actually be landed on, and those that could be landed on, didn't have a lot on them. This is probably taken to the max in the sequels though!

I look forward to playing the sequels. I'll probably keep playing them on console (no BioWare-points!). I hope they will become playable on Xbox One soon. Also, is the DLC for Mass Effect worth getting?

Haven't played the third one yet, but the second changes planetary surveying a lot. You no longer drive the Mako, but scan planets from space. I was one of the few, it seems, who didn't mind the mechanics of planet scanning, but I far preferred driving the Mako around planetary surfaces.
Bring Down the Sky is. Not so sure about Pinnacle Station though.

Great game. Im playing through it right now. Cool to play in the dark.

Renegade Ops

Finished the main campaign (Inferno) and the DLC (Coldstrike). It's an okay game, but only if played in short bursts. The gameplay is incredibly repetitive so if I played more than two levels in a row, I would get bored. The story is incredibly cheesy (an EEEEEVIL villain wants to destroy the WOOOOORLD) and only we, the most BADASStm group in the entire world, can stop them! Bryant (the dispatcher) is particularly over the top and to be frank, the guy should belong to a mental hospital rather than being the commander of the renegade forces. Of course, this is intentional - the game clearly borrows themes from B action movies and the 50s-60s comic books. On the other hand I liked that it doesn't take itself too seriously, but at times it was maybe too "wacky". It was like I was playing (or watching) a Saturday morning kids' TV show.

If you got it for free from the Sega bundle, then I say at least try it, but don't expect too much. As for "would I pay money for this"... I would probably have to say no. Not enough content in the long run to be entertaining for more than a few hours; after that, you just kinda want to see how it ends (and how cheesy can it be while doing that).

Nope. I hate to break it to you but this part of Mass Effect is completely scrapped in the sequels. No more mako exploration, no more random discoveries, you only get to play a boring minigame of scanning planets for minerals, without actually landing on them.

The upside is that the planets you actually land on during your missions offer much more interesting encounters. No more mostly empty desert planets with just one or two buildings on it that share the same interiors and the same set of enemies.

The running joke in 12 Labours of Hercules is that mighty Hercules only rarely rousts himself to do any actual labour in this cartoony time-management game. His trusty servants (ahem, slaves) race about cutting down trees, clearing roads, filling in pits, building bridges, and erecting supply centers; except when there's a star-power Hero Task to do, Hercules spends levels resting in his hammock.

In each of the game's 40 levels you basically need to get across the map. That may involve clearing the obstacles in the road; building bridges over rivers or ravines, or boats to sail away on; collecting gold for the trip; or disposing of monsters in your way. You'll gather resources to pay for everything you do, and generally there's just enough potential in each map to make it to the end in time. Level design is attentive without being mean, and each level will run to solution in five to ten minutes, making this a bite-sized casual game for I-have-a-few-minutes timing needs.

One clever and irritating design choice adds weight to game achievements by way of in-game monuments. Completing each level in Gold time (there are 10 levels per stage, four stages in all) builds a section of an acient artifact that has nothing to do with anything, but sits there accusingly when it's only partially completed. In one stage, for example, you're building the Argo, and how can you not finish the Argo? It appeals to fundamental tinkering instincts, and makes the game hard (for me, at least) to complete casually.

Whether you breeze through 12 Labours or dump hours and hours of time into the damn thing - I'm at over 50 hours on Steam at this point - depends on two things: whether you are the sort of person who can peacefully leave your ancient wonders half-built, and whether you choose to play on Expert in the initial settings. Think carefully about this. The game is great pleasant fun, and making your Gold times on Expert is HARD. I don't have 50 hours to put into Wasteland 2, say, but in its little dollops of timed frustration, 12 Labours of Hercules managed to fill up my scattered free time much more than I ever intended. You've been warned.

Once you finish this one, parts II, III, and IV await. You've been warned, again.