I have quite a bunch to report here from February. Sorry for the length. :-)

Heroes of Might and Magic II including Price of Loyalty expansion. Hmm, what can I say. Well, I like the game I really do and it is very good game on it's own. But, the problem with it is, that I played Heroes III first and it is probably my the most favourite game ever.
It is also improvement over HoMaM II in almost every aspect. Most mechanics are improved, there are more units with more upgrades, they have more skills, there are more hero skills, heroes have little bios (not game changer but I love them), they are more varied, I like graphics more, you can wait in battles, battle AI is more interesting and so on.
It might sound like Heroes II is a bad game but it is in no way a case. It is just hard to judge for me, as it was surpassed in almost every aspect by it successor.
Still I had fun playing it and it's own it's worth playing for every fan of TBS.
I went through all missions with enthusiasm, I never got bored (it took me only several weeks to beat it because I haven't abandoned it as I do with other TBS often) and always looked forward to playing it.

It deserves 8/10.

Guacamelee! Gold Edition. My god, is it good. I was looking forward to this game and it haven't disappointed me at all. Actually I was looking forward to both this and Dust: An Elysian Tail and right now I am in the process of playing Dust and I like Guacamelee perhaps a little bit more.
All thanks to amazing combat system. I loved it. It's probably the best I have seen in platformers so far. It's just so well done, so fluid, quite easy to pull off and really responsive. It's certainly the strongest point of the game.
I would actually like to see more of it, possibly at the expense of platforming. I certainly haven't enjoyed it as much as combat. Most of time it was nice and fun but I think it was overdone and infuriating at some points. Yes, Tula Tree, I am looking at you. When I was getting some pieces of mask I was incredibly frustrated and raged a lot.
I don't think it is done particulary well compared to combat. In combat you actually have time to do what you want to do, you don't have to mash buttons quickly to perform combos, while a lot of enviromental puzzles are to be overcome only by split second action, when player has to perform very precise actions in order to reach his destination. I wouldn't mind it as probably all harder platforming was for optional stuff, but considering you can't get the true ending without it, I do mind.
On the optimistic side, I also love the setting, humour and looks of the game.
I completed game on 100%, finding all secrets and getting the true ending on first try. I also got 10 gold medals in El Infierno challenges (plus about 2 silver), but other challenges were either too hard or unappealing for me to finish.
For incredibly fun brawling this deserves 8.5/10.

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. Finally, after playing multiplayer for several years and at least year sincce I started it, I completed the campaign here. I liked it, it's certainly one of best TBS out there, but I think it has weakest campaign of all three released AoW games. Still it doesn't mean it's bad at all. I enjoyed it a lot. More than whole Disciples II which I played recently too. Compared to HoMaM II, it would be bit higher than HoMaM thanks to more overall polish, more interesting mechanics and spell system.
My biggest complain is the braindead AI and sometimes artificaly prolonged scenarios to unnecessary length.
Because of it I still don't think it deseves more than 8/10. Which is very good of course, but could have been a bit better.

Orc Must Die 2!. Weakest of the bunch I completed recently. I still quite like the game and I liked its prequel as well. What I like most are some nifty traps and I enjoy setting them up. I on the other hand am not fan at all of fast clicking you have to do in order to kill Orcs. I would enjoy it better if it was more about building perfect trap filled route and less about clicking like crazy. Yet I fairly enjoyed and completed everything (except endless maps and including DLC) on normal difficulty.
I don't have much motivation to try nightmare difficulty, though, as I am afraid it will be even bigger clickfest.
7/10 for my sore thumb.

I also went through Puzzle Quest: Challenge of Warlord. I used this game as relaxation and had it running on half of screen while I was doing something else (mostly watching something on PC) but more and more I got into, I was paying more attention to the game than to the other thing I was doing. Once again enjoyable game, although it could be much better. I am not fan of "match 3" games and I see little point in them, but when they are used as combat mechanics I can quite enjoy them.
It is actually put to good use here and make for fun game.
You can play with different spells, create synergies with them, there are many various activities with different rules (sieges, research, trainings,...) and it is fun when everything works out and you unleash hell on enemy.
That's one of the problem with the game. It is incredibly random and likes to screw you over. One game your enemy is able to destroy you in one turn and you get nothing and other time he barely scratches you while you obliterate. If it was only thanks to abilities, it would be all right but it can really screw you over by what appears on board which can be infuraiting sometimes.
Other problem with the game is too many random encounters. Those were tedious and annoyed me. When I started the game, I wanted to do something particular. To progress in story or to do some side quest perhaps. Instead I often had to slug through bunch of random creeps, usually too weak to pose any challenge so basically just eating up my time.

Otherwise there is not much I can complain about. Well, the game lacks weapons in fights in comparison to its sequel and it decreases options in combat somehow, but that's about it.
Also, it would be nice if the sieges mattered and town treated you differently after you conquer it, but it is like nothing would happen.
It is only "match 3" game so I guess I expect too much.

My rating would be 7/10.

Link to full list.

Just finished Dave Goez Nutz!. Note to anyone considering picking up the Dangerous Dave Pack - Stop at Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion. The final two games are poorly designed, buggy, and generally seem like they were just haphazardly strewn together =(

I can't say much about the very first game as I haven't finished it, maybe I'll get back to it at some later point.

You're making me feel bad since I recommended that you should play the final 2 games :P

I just finished episode 2 of The Walking Dead (Season 2). I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens in the next episodes. I wish they wouldn't take so long in between the episodes.

Now you're making me feel bad for making you feel bad D:

Honestly, I'm glad I played through them though, it was genuinely fascinating to see how the series evolved over time - for example, they went from infinite ammo with reloading, to limited ammo with reloading, then back to infinite ammo without any reloading. It's interesting how subtle changes can mean the difference between good game design and bad game design.

In fact, the way that Haunted Mansion handled ammo was one thing that ultimately made me enjoy it. It felt very tactical - I had to consider how much ammo to use at one time and when the best time was to stop and reload. Also, the unlimited ammo worked a lot better than limited; it meant I didn't need to scrounge around for ammo and it seemed a lot more balanced (at the end of Risky Rescue, I was pretty much maxed out on ammo).

I actually didn't beat him either.
I got to him and lost 8 or 9 times in row and only once I got him under half of health. Next day I asked my girlfriend if she wants to try it. She haven't played any Puzzle Quest for few years (she played PQ2 back then but never PQ1). At first attempt she got him down to 10 health aand lost in unlucky way. Second attempt she destroyed him quite easily.
So I personally haven't finished the game too but saw the ending. :-)



Anyway, we finished The Book of Unwritten Tales today. Well, I haven't played it much myself, I was not-too-quiet observer most of the time, but I saw whole story and won't play it myself so it is finished. It's always hard for me to write review of point and click adventures and even more when I don't play them. But I think it was fairly enjoyable and I was told to rate it 8/10. That's half point better than Sanitarium, one more than A Vampyre Story and half point worse than Gemini Rue, which are adventures we played recently. :-)
I personally think it is quite cliché story and a lot of things could have been done better (I am not fan of when you are most often supposed to find solution on only 2 screens, it is quite simplistic most of time and there is annoying barely visible item because of which we spent very long time searching before we learnt that you can highlight all items on screen).
It is also usually quite logical, even if it's in silly way sometimes, which is plus, its humour is most often than not good, characters are again mostly likeably and visuals are good.
It took us almost exactly 20 hours to finish (19 hours 59 minute according to last autosave), but fairly large chunk of it was searching for leather patch.

Link to full list again.

Just finished Guacamelee on the PS Vita/PS3 (thanks to Cross-Save). An excellent game all round, with the exception of two ridiculous trial-and-error platforming sections and two ridiculous trial-and-error bosses. Really did scratch that Metroidvania itch.

What did irritate the fuck out of me with the PS3/Vita version was the constant nagging about that fucking DLC. A pity that indie games have to stoop to that tactic. I'll certainly get around to playing the PC version with the El Infierno arena soon.

7.03. - Harvester.
What a twisted, brilliant, repulsive, self-aware, demented, great game it is!
So far my GOG release of the year (well, there was Downfall, but I played it so many times I can hardly call it something new for me :)).

Next KQ68-9CXW-A52Q-NYAP Oddworld: Abe's Exodus

Just finished playing "Gone Home" - kinda weird one really. I did kinda like it, but suppose i found stuff "in wrong order" and got wrong sort of expectations how the plot might go. Anyways, i do like this sort of games and can appreciate the uniqueness of this one - but well. hard to say. dont want to spoil anything. Definitely worth the experience if you can find it for cheap price and like slowish exploration and so.

I got this, thanks for the paste!

I finished Raven Legacy of a Master Thief, and it's an okay game; not worth the $7 I paid for it, so lesson learned on that. The story was nice, and I didn't mind the tricksy ending (I certainly didn't see it coming), but the gameplay was underwhelmingly simplistic- I expected much tougher puzzles from this game, I guess because it raised my expectations by having a great atmosphere and well-written script. It's certainly a game worth playing, if you just want to zone out and navigate pretty scenery while progressing through an interesting story.

I think it could also have benefited from having more secrets.

others: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2014/post388

I finally beat Thief. Bought it back when it first came out. The zombies used to scare me so much that I couldn't get past the second stage. A very good game.

Played through Costume Quest last week. It's a cute, somewhat entertaining game with some funny and original ideas, sadly none of them are related to the core gameplay which is the least ambitious I've seen from Double Fine so far: smash every container, talk to everyone, battle, battle, mini game, battle, next area - repeat 3 times (4 with DLC). Trying out new costumes in battle is fun at first, but once the novelty wears off, the combat gets pretty repetitive. I'm not a great fan of the static JRPG style in the first place, but in Costume Quest, apart from the final boss battles, hardly any combat required varied strategies and I ended up just doing the same things over and over. Fortunately there was no random grinding involved, the number of combats is set, you can (and should) clear areas completely and permanently. The story was ok but nothing too exciting. I liked the setting, the graphic style and thought the humor was nice enough, so I'd give it a 7/10 as a Double Fine fanboy, but it's probably more of a 6 in terms of gameplay. Psychonauts, Brütal Legend and Stacking are much more original and fun (even though Stacking's gameplay is similarly simplistic and repetitive, but at least it's based on an original and fun idea, not just a cute setting).

I chose to play it with my PS2 controller, btw, which might have made the QTEs a bit more difficult at first, since it required me to internalize which PS2 buttons were corresponding to the Xbox buttons prompted on the screen, but apart from that it worked perfectly and felt more appropriate than moving around with WASD (or was it Arrow keys?) and pressing E to smash containers.

08/03/2014 Legend of Kyrandia: Book II More of the same fun, though no mazes this time. Worth a playthrough.

Full list here

Working on Da Capo, finished a couple routes so I figure I may as well post about it while I take a break. It's a school romance VN along the lines of Kanon or Clannad, though not as good. Not to say it's bad either, it just can't hold up to those classics. Suffers from some pacing issues - some parts early and middle of the story drag on too long, while the end of both routes I've played are mercilessly rushed. There's a bit of magic in the story, but very poorly integrated. It's mentioned early, but is completely irrelevant until the end where it's pretty much used as a crutch for poor storytelling. I think it would have been better off without it. While the overall plot(s) are pretty weak, the writing in day-to-day interactions with your friends is pretty well done. Some solid emotional moments, and quite a few funny scenes that got a good laugh out of me.

It has about a 7/10 rating on vndb.org, which I think is pretty fair.