Finished Wrack, a FPS that I got in a bundle from Bundle Stars. Never heard of the game and installed it without really knowing what to expect. It was a pleasant surprise: a pleasant FPS, quite fast, punchy music and enjoyable level design. The story does the job but the dev wanted to make more episodes and never did.

Full list here.

The lava one hit killing you kinda ruined the game for me, I never finished it.

Plants vs Zombies (Xbox One)

All i actually meant to do was have a quick look at it. It's the 360 version which i got added to my account for free some time in the distant past, then it appeared on the ready for install list on Xbox One after the backwards compatibility came in.

So the quick look turned into playing it all day yesterday, and i mean ALL day. 50 regular "story" levels and kicked Zombosses ass. Then all the puzzle levels which were actually pretty good, then all the survival levels. Can't ever see myself doing co-op or vs mode because i'd need mates for that. So it's pretty much done then unless i want to check in to water my Zen Garden from time to time!

Pretty much addictive gameplay perfection. One issue with it only, which may only be limited to the 360 version (not sure) it can be hard to see the cursor when the screen is really busy with action...it really needs to be highlighted or colored better.

And i thought that i didn't even like Tower Defence.

Yeah, sure. There are also bombs that one hit kill you too. A bit annoying but it was definitely not a stopper for me.

And Shadowrun: Dragonfall is beaten.

What a fun and surprisingly excellent game. Story was a bit confusing. i think it does not explain the world and rules of it adequately for a person who never played shadowrun before.

nevertheless i got all the important parts of the story but i did miss on some nuances.

Now I need to play Hong Kong.

Psychonauts

This game was a lot fun, but also represented some of the worst platforming I've ever experienced. I would put this game high up on the remake list as it not only offered a very entertaining gaming experience on dated systems, but it needs some serious tweaking in a few areas.

The plot fell flat in a few places, but was very good in others, mostly for simple dialogue purposes and character development.

If you want to 100% this game, you will most likely require a game pad of some sort. Mouse and keyboard make it near impossible to get one of the achievements (which also includes an in game reward, which then links to a second achievement).

Highly recommendable to any platforming fan, but be warned.... there are a few moments that go far beyond simple frustration.

Broken Sword 2 - Remastered (Linux)

Broken Sword 1 was always my favourite point'n'click adventure since about 1996 and if I remember correctly, it was rated as the game of the year 1995 around here.
I've already finished Broken Sword 2 two or three times about 10 years ago and wanted to take a look at the remastered edition before finally playing part 3-5 for the first time. I've already played the remastered first episode a few years ago.
The additional features I've noticed are an integrated prequel in comic form, 5.1 surround sound, close-ups of the characters in dialogues for showing mimics, a hint system that isn't working very well if you do stuff in a different order than was planned by them and upscaled sprites via the usual cloudy HQ-filter. Most stuff doesn't seem to have been touched. The changes are nice although unnecessary.
I've encountered some bugs I can't remember from the original game, but only three.
Two of those were graphical glitches that only appeared for a second but one was a gameplay block. A trigger for an important conversation didn't seem to have been triggered in the first two tries (Titipoco and the rope) but suddenly worked when looking into trying it a third time after looking into a walkthrough only to notice that I made everything right.

I still like the first part of the series way more but it's a nice game, I just wished they'd implemented a fast scene-change via double click or right mouse button like in similar games and would have sped up the animations you have to see over and over again for minutes in riddles like the big stone discs at the end.

In contrast to the Android version, all language files are already included and don't have to be donwloaded inside of the game. I've played the second game in English for the first time now and just like in the first game, I like Nico's German voice (Scully from X-Files) way more than this over the top arrogant sounding voice in the English version but it does fit the character after all.

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Dirt 3 (360)

Codemasters Rally/Dirt Racer game. Overall i have mixed feelings on this one. It controlled perfect with the Wheel i have and the graphics were so good that i found myself wondering why the next gen was even needed. Technically it is exactly how a driving game needs to be, smooth fast frame rate, excellent view distance.

The strong point of the game for me, is the point to point traditional Rally type stages. The Kenya stages in particular are just what i like- open high speed flowing stages. Unfortunately there are really only 4 different locations for these stages- Finland Forests, Norway snow and ice, Kenya open dirt and gravel (the best part of the game) and Michigan gravel/tarmac mix. The variety of the open stages runs out too fast, but they are still nice just the same. Add to that a total of 7 generations of Rally vehicles to drive from the 60's to current.

The Rally Cross events are pretty fast and fun on their closed circuits, but i've never like Codemasters AI which they pretty much have never changed since the original TOCA from back in about '98. It's the rubber band style AI that i dislike...why drive hard to get a gap when the AI simply speeds up to catch you? What's the penalty for bad driving when the AI just slows down to let you catch up? The Cross events are still fun though, especially the Off Road Buggy events where it feels like you spend more time in the air than on the dirt.

Then there are the utter utter crap Gymkhana and Drift events. I suppose there must be fans of this stuff. But i just don't see the enjoyment of getting a powerhouse vehicles and then driving it around some hokey pokey carpark that's hardly bigger than my backyard doing burnouts for an arbitrary score. I avoided these events wherever i could. They really are rubbish.

Unfortunately the season mode has far too much of the crap events and far too little of the good stuff. And to progress in season mode, sometimes you simply have to do a Gymkhana to get enough points to move on.

So overall it's a bit of a two faced game, evil on one side, good on the other. If Codemasters would drop the X- Games stuff and go back to a full on stage racing Rally sim then it would be much better. But i suppose the kiddies must prefer doing donuts in carparks?

To The Moon - Holiday Special Minisodes 1+2 (Linux)

Both are belonging together more or less, so playing them in the right order is advisable.
It's a very short story about the two doctors, nothing special but nice nonetheless with a surprising ending after the credits.

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Jane Croft - The Baker St. Murder

This is the worst HOG I have ever played. Though to be clear, it is only the second HOG I have ever played. :) The hidden object scenes were standard and exactly what would be expected. I found the rest of the game fairly lackluster, from the cut scene art to the minigames to the plot. However, since it is a HOG and that part of it was done well enough, I can probably give it a 5 or 6 out of 10.

The "bonus", unlocked by collecting objects during the game, is a FPS (kinda), so that was funny. I had to replay all the HOG scenes because I didn't care enough to pay enough attention to grab all those items (the bonus unlocks by collecting an item in various cutscenes) the first time through. Still didn't take more than a few hours - it is SHORT. The objects to find in the HOG scenes rotate, so there is a bit of replayability. It ends on a cliffhanger, but you likely won't care enough to be the least bit upset about that...

This was from a Desura bundle on Dailyindiegame. :)

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I've never been a big fan of Zombies, though I certainly don't outright hate them. It's just something that doesn't particularly press any buttons on me.

So, I wasn't paying attention to Dying Light before its release. In fact, the first time I remember seeing anything about the game was when it was released on steam. A bit later I saw GGGman's review video of it and forgot about it.

Recently, due to the Halloween sale, a couple of friends wanted to buy a 4 pack of it, and asked if I wouldn't like to join and help find a fourth guy.

I don't know what hit me, but I decided to join them and actually found the fourth guy to buy.

So I started playing the game and, to my surprise, I quite got into it. It's not perfect by any means, I still agree with a lot of points made by GGGman, but I found it very engaging.

I did all side quests (though the game didn't recognise it somehow) and all 8 repeatable quests besides the main quest.

On a side note, I only noticed the game was running way slower than it should some 30 hours in, when I watched GGGman's review video again and figured things were way faster in the video. Doh! So I turned off a few extra bells and whistles on the options menu and it improved dramatically.

Being Beauteous

Finally, the re-telling of Cinderella in free desura visual novel form that no one asked for. Amateurish and mediocre to its core, I challenge you to alter the story of Cinderella in a less interesting way.

SPOILER

Except for that brief - and totally earnest - part where she becomes a prostitute.

Odd Bot Out (Android)

This little game was a real surprise.
Since it was a late addition to a mediocre Humble Mobile Bundle, I didn't expect much.
Then someone recommended it to me and I started playing.
It's a really nice little physics puzzler where every level is a short puzzle and you can play it in many short bursts if you want. The design is minimalistic but cute and not distracting. It's coded by one guy, well made and quite easy.
As casual games go, I recommend this one, it's one of the better games for Android.

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Little Inferno

I really enjoyed L.I. The story bits, enhanced by the soundtrack, were a nice backdrop to the flames. I thought it was fun, imaginative, and well done.

Would burn again.