batman arkham origins

not as bad as its reputation led to believe
but not exactly great either
its middle of the road
and it really really wants to be arkham city
down to the annoying remote batarang sections

i like it slightly better then arkham city because its slightly more linear and focused and less unfocused distractions but its really arkham city v 1.5

and after 3 games i am rather done with this series
neither do i really care much for wb games dubious busines practises

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Not going to lie, i had a bad first impression of this game due to the artwork and premise (an oversexualized girl that uses her hair as a weapon? Eh.....) but i just loved this game, it was worth the 12€ that i've spent on the Friends of Nintendo bundle and i haven't yet played the others.

It's been a while since i've played something that really manages to capture that feeling of the 90's plataforms games, i can't really think of anything that i could complain about, the gameplay is great, didn't feel anything wrong while jumping or fighting, it had that metroidvania aspect that makes you want to explore the islands in order to collect items that will help, the music fit the mood... I mean, the only thing that i can complain is the difficulty, it's easy to get items that will make your life easy, i've only used an auto revive potion and was because i was too lazy to use other health items, still, don't think the game will make your life easy, there were some plataform parts (especially the last level where there's this huge difficulty spike) that will make you retry many times.

This really helped me opening my eyes to this type of indie titles on portables, dunno, i get bored playing them on my laptop but i can imagine myself enjoying it on the go.


Rebel Galaxy

A disappointement to be honest, somewhat good reviews and a promising combat system so i thought it was going to fill the void of combat space games but all i found was a boring grinding experience.

I know that it's an indie title so i can't really expect much of it, the graphics looks great and the soundtrack is amazing but when it comes to gameplay it's just boring, you get the main quest (that is ok, i guess) and the secundary quests that you'll need to complete in order to get the cash needed for upgrades and better ships.
Well, the problem is that it's the same thing in every quest, blow up stuff, protect something and blow up stuff or transport something and blow up stuff.

"Yeah, it's a space shooter, what did you expect?" That's the thing, something a bit different, i'm not expecting the secundary quests of The Witcher 3 but some variety would be great, dunno, sometimes no enemies would appear, sometimes you could betray and make more money, dunno, something different.

The worst was without any doubt the escort missions, the dumb AI would get stuck on something (normally asteroids) and it was a pain to wain until it got out of it and proceed with the mission...

There isn't any strategy to the combat, get better weapons and hit one of the sides of the enemy until he blows up, that's it. Again, i wish there was something more, dunno, hit the engine and stuff like that...

Rayman - 3/5

This game has some real shitty-ass design decisions: a lot of incredibly frustrating instant death scenarios, objects that only appear only when you stand on certain arbitrary points, a lot of things that are inconsistent or poorly communicated (e.g. areas that just start autoscrolling for no apparent reason or physics changing apropos of nothing). So, given that, I don't feel bad about using cheats (setting lives to 99 and unlocking the final section of the game).

The gameplay issues really are a huge shame because the visual design is really inspired and the pixel art is incredible. There's also some nice music, even if it does occasionally stop playing here or there.

I just completed the Quake expansion Dissolution of Eternity. I really liked the idea of that last boss. I hope to see something like that in future Quake games.

Fallen Enchantress : Leg. Heroes [Skirmish mode]

Fairly complex 4x game. Even on easy on a small world, it took me 11ish hours to play through one map, and that was after having messed around for a few hours to figure out what I was doing before restarting.

All in all, I'd say it's quite superior to Warlock (1). Much better exploration, more balanced magic, much more complex city management, and just more polished overall.

The one downside was a bit of instability - think it crashed to desktop about 4x (appropriately) during the playthrough. But better interface/ui.

All in all I give it an A-, and might be enough to prompt me to delete Civ5, at least for the time being (i.e. until the last expac for Civ5 is under $5). Will take a break to do some RL things and maybe play along farther in Portal 2, but will be back to try the scenarios.

Bloodborne (PS4 obviously)

Got the secret ending which isn't really all that secret, but you get to fight an extra boss. Beat down all the main game bosses including every optional one. Found all optional and secret areas. Soloed all bosses except Vicar Amelia and Martyr Logarius which I did co-op. I also helped lots of others co-op the bosses after I'd done them for the bonus Blood Echoes and Insight rewards. Finished the first play through at level 90. Did I like it? More than that, it's the best ARPG I've played since the first Dark Souls. I'm still going through it again on a second speed run for NG+ as well as finishing up the optional Chalice Dungeons.

The formula is the same as every other From Soft game since Demon's Souls. Light the Lamp and explore ever further, unlocking shortcuts and putting the smack down on area bosses. One thing that does feel different to Souls games is the combat. Hunters don't use shields, they dislike the passive type of combat they inspire. Bloodbornes Hunters are all about speed and pressing home the attack. Spells take a very back seat this time, really only taking the form of tools that can be used by Arcane builds. Guns are used, but they are not really damage dealers, more used to interrupt enemy attack moves and set up counters. Really this one is all about high speed melee. That does make the character progression feel a little less varied, but I still liked the differences.

Otherwise it's what you expect from From Soft. Outstanding world design that builds vertically as much as sideways and all links together via unlockable gates and secret paths. Finding and opening the shortcuts is almost as rewarding as downing the bosses. Enemy designs that are like nightmares straight from the mind of a very sick person. And NPC's that are as weird and insane as ever. Game play is exactly what you expect as well. Play slow, carefully, concentrate and explore fully and it doesn't feel as difficult as it's portrayed to be. Slip into carelessness and impatience and the game will punish you. For me that is how difficulty should work in a game, none of this save anywhere save scumming rubbish that I despise so much. Most of my deaths outside boss fights happened when I simply got careless or lazy....running along and plunging down an open elevator shaft because I forgot to call the elevator, you would not believe how many times I did that!

Story is inconsequential, but it's there and is as weird and disturbing as ever.

The usual oddball Souls multiplayer also returns. Though so far I've only been invaded once in the first play through. So it seems the Bloodborne community aren't into the player ganking side of things. Even my one invader was quite polite about it, and since I won that fight, I'm not complaining.

One feature I haven't seen in earlier Souls games are the awesome Chalice Dungeons. Basically they are like a 20 hour, or more, optional sidequest. And honestly it is the most difficult part of the game. Defeating certain optional main game bosses will reward you with a number of Chalices. Collect certain materials, perform a ritual and create a set of 7 fixed dungeons each with usually three or four floors, each floor with a boss to progress. Each set of dungeons gets harder and honestly, they get far harder than anything in the main game. They are meant to really be completed via NG+ leveling as they do not scale when going to a new game plus.
But wait...there's more. Exploring the regular Chalice dungeons will lead to you finding "Root" versions of the Chalices. Perform the ritual and the game generates a random dungeon around the level scaling of the Chalice used. These are not only great for leveling or a break, but also contain unique weapon variations you can find.
I think the Chalice Dungeons are a pretty neat idea and I hope they have been made a part of Dark Souls 2 and 3 (which I haven't played yet).
But there's STILL more. The generated dungeons have codes which you can share so that friends can reproduce the same dungeons- great if they contain good rare material drops.

The only technical issue I have with the game are the loading times. It's made worse by a design decision where you cannot move directly between unlocked Lamps, you must always pass through the safe zone of the Hunters Dream. So every time you want to fast travel you always get two load screens for the price of one. Loads after dying within the zone you are in are usually faster and can be avoided by the simple tactic of not dying all the time!

Overall, for me this game goes beyond just good or fun. It's one of the greats. Not as good as the first Dark Souls (DS just has much broader character build options), but still pretty damn good. Best game on PS4 easily.

I finished Epistory and it was really good. It is a typing game with some powers (fire, ice, wind and storm) to add some variation and difficulty. Graphics are simply gorgeous and the game is full of poesy. I really recommend this indie game.

Full list here.

Doom 3 - Normal difficulty

Can't say it would be my first choice, but there's much worse things you could be doing than being a space marine and shooting lots of demons in the face.

It has a slow start mostly because your early weapons feel underwhelming, but it picks up that's for sure. Also very good value, it's long and fairly challenging at times, it seems like it just won't die.

I don't play a lot of shooters, so I considered it something a bit different.

Farcry from around the same time, rather than being linear in small dark stuffy corridors, was large and unlinear in a really pretty environment, and was tougher. Pretty much beats it handsdown. Half Life 2, also linear but in a prettier environment, Farcry beats that too. Farcry defeats all shooters.

Warlords Battlecry 3

Not as good as its predecessors. Complex hero customization was something I loved in Warlords Battlecry series. It was reduced here so levelling up a hero was not enjoyable as it used to be. Storywise it was OK. Nothing really special but good enough, especially because you can (depending on your starting race) join different sides of conflict. I like it that you can move around the map and explore it as you wish but it could have been implemented better (everything patiently wait for your arrival). A solid RTS but nothing special.


Full list

Duke Nukem Forever
I dropped it year or two back in absolute disgust. I like mediocre and AA tier games (including FPSes) but this was just abomination incarnation.
Theory saying that Gearbox used it (and Alien game) to catch some cash for their child (Borderlands2) have sense.
I got physical pain playing it.
Stopped playing FPS games since then;
Credits were looooooong but the BBQ that I made when they were rollin' was good. That BBQ was the only good thing I remember about this garbage.

Lara Croft and Guardian of Light
Devs tried fighting with stagnation and won. Really enjoyable, was surprised the changed genre went that good.

Wolfenstein The New Order
Another good way to revive old classic. Satisfying finale. Good and intense shooting. Loved the language system in this game. Massive props for action in Poland.
I don't know why there is no difference (in acurracy) between aim down sight and from the hip. Despite countess hours with STALKER games I'm still not a fan of aim down sight system.
And good thing I got better internet (from adsl into lte, 15x faster)

Technobabylon (11:20pm 8 June)

A meh Wadjet eye game. Nothing special about this game, Some f the puzzles are bad and the story isn't that good..

<span class="bold">What's inside the box?</span> (Android)

Another successful recommendation by the GooglePlay app, this is a nice puzzle game that's perfect for being played in short burst while e.g. commuting. It contains 100 levels of more or less increasing difficulty, be it conceptual or ability-based: sometimes it's all about figuring out what you need to do to advance to the next level, while in other levels it's crystal clear what you have to do, but it's not an easy task. Yes, some of the levels falling in the second category do involve sliding puzzles, so if you're fundamentally opposed to those you'd better skip this game entirely.

In case you get stuck it's got a built-in (and not excessively intrusive) hint system which I confess to have used in several occasions... and in almost all of them I felt stupid for not having guessed it myself.

All in all, a good little game to kill some time while you wait for the bus.


My list of finished games in 2016

Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut

It's a rather simple, merciful and Metroidvania game which is highly entertaining.

Simple because it's short (I have completed in within 5 hours and found every possible item) and the world map is not really complicated.

Merciful because it's not only on easier side (but there are some elements that are somewhat challenging) but also it doesn't punish you too much for your mistakes. Even falling in a bottomless pit (and they are even conveniently marked!) just hurts you a little bit and send you to the entrance of this particular stage, you don't get a game over screen for that.

Metroidvania part means that you will have to backtrack a lot because unlocking new skills allows you to access new areas. I find it interesting that enemies in previously explored areas get tougher as you progress so it helps to keep things fresh every time you have to backtrack.

And finally - the game is highly entertaining. Mostly because it's diverse. You can expect a labyrinth with some puzzles, a tower that you have to climb within a time limit (don't worry, you can repeat anytime you wish), even a simple shmup. And of course nicely hidden secrets that you can only find with a specific skill (finding them all was not really difficult but entertaining nonetheless). Platforming part was nice, just in some parts getting a bit harder but no ultra-precision required. Fighting (you mostly whip monsters with... your hair) works pretty well.

My only complain is two damage-sponge bosses. So boring!!! Oh, wait, my second complain is the talk characters have at the end of the game. So much of positiveness can make you yarf.

All in all it's a very enjoyable and not very demanding game so if you look for a leisure Metroidvania game Shantae is for you!

Full list

Legend of Kyrandia (Book Two): The Hand of Fate

This is a very fun point-and-click adventure. This game has humour, nice graphics, good voice acting, and an easy/intuitive user interface. Furthermore, the puzzles are not too hard nor are there any dead-ends and it doesn’t have any of the annoying trial-and-error puzzles or mazes from the first game. Overall I’d recommend it to everyone!

Finished Hector Badge of Carnage Episode 1. A nice point'n click with some crude humor but nothing outstanding.

Full list here.