Dex, Dec 5 (GOG)-I was surprised how good this was. I enjoyed the story and the voice acting and writing were quite good. The combat was a low point. It started off great in the early game with melee, was quite difficult when using guns because of the minimal damage, difficulty aiming, slow reloads, and general lack of ammo, and then became trivially easy once you got a certain regen upgrade. This upgrade kinda broke the game as it made all other skill and aug upgrades when leveling pretty much meaningless.

The game reminded me a lot of a JRPG where the developers have a story they want to tell and you're along for the ride with minimal impact to what happens. That may sould bad but sometimes you just want to hear the story. The side quests were generally interesting diversions and background for the story. The plot itself had some cliches and foreshadowed the big reveal a lot (at least I thought) and all of the endings felt like a letdown. Still I thought it was quite good and if the combat and leveling were a little better I think it could have been an alltime favorite.

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Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory (XB1X)

Arcade tank game, and there's not enough tank games- arcade or otherwise. This one gets a lot of crap because it shares some of it's name with the earlier simulation game that is on GOG. That doesn't mean that it's not competent at being what it actually is though. The campaign is 18 missions long and broken up into 3 distinct mini campaigns. the first learning campaign is 5 missions where you drive German tanks, then 6 with the Russian and finally 7 with an American crew.

The difficulty ramps up and peaks at the end of the Russian missions and felt easier in the American campaign, or I was just getting the hang of it. Whilst it may be arcade, you still have to use caution and tactics. Drive head on into a nest of 88's and you get shredded. You have to advance with caution, use your binoculars to scout out positions and snipe from range. Approach using cover with your hull down to minimise risk, let your platoon take fire whilst you flank. It was pretty good in that way.

The main negative is the AI, especially that of your own platoon! I'm pretty sure it wasn't standard doctrine for tanks behind to drive right up the ass of the tank in front. It was enraging sometimes to cautiously peek around a corner and fire off a shot and reverse back to cover, only to be blocked by some idiot on my side that drove right up behind and blocked me. Likewise the enemy could use some work to. You can have up to 5 more tanks supporting you in some missions, yet of course the enemy only fires at you once they see you. But it's an old game and I can forgive most of its issues.

The version I played was the OG Xbox, which is emulated at x16 (so basically 4:3 ratio 4K) resolution on XB1X. It still looks old, but really sharp. It was on PS2 and is still on Steam. Overall it's was fun, but not all time classic material...but it doesn't have much competition either. It sold for only A$2 on a recent XBL sale and for that it was definitely worth it.

Finished a few games lately:
- TSIOQUE: I recommend it to point'n click lovers. It is not perfect but the art is great, puzzles are mostly good (not very difficult most of the time) and the story interesting. It is short though (3h).
- DmC: Devil May Cry: I am not a beat'em all pro but I managed to finish it in normal without using/remembering all combos. I had difficulties on a few bosses though. I recommend the game, it is quite fun to play.
- The Gardens Between: Another short game (3h). Good art and good puzzles too (not too difficult but they get harder progressively).

3 good games :)

Full list here.

>Observer_ (XB1X)

If you've played Layers of Fear, then you know the type of game you will be getting into here. Just Cyberpunk instead. My experience pretty much mirrors the one I had with Layers of Fear as well. Good atmosphere, interesting story and theme, disturbing. But it also just went on too long and became boring. As far as walking sims go, it does involve slightly more than just interacting with things and reading, it has simple puzzles and even some side stuff that is optional I believe.

It stars Rutger Hauer who does voice the messed up character you play pretty well.

Overall though, take out all the bizarre, surreal, visual effects and scary sounds, you spend about 7 or 8 hours walking down similar looking passages doing not much. Like I said above, after the first few hours, you're desensitised to all the mind games and it just becomes dull. Except the surreal dream like sequences when you "observe" some ones memories and you have to avoid the invincible monster. Those parts become tedious AND boring.

The game also did not perform well at all. Terrible frame pacing issues, I suspect the FPS is uncapped and jumping all over the place with a V-sync in place and no option to just lock it. Layers of Fear had the exact same issue. Maybe it's okay on PC.

The game is not a total disaster though. I did want to play until the end to see how it ends. Playing it on game pass was a good idea.

layers of fear is also on gamepass. got it for free last year but only tried it on xbox, the game felt terrible though, like 15 frames per second terrible.
quick question, did you do the points CRUSADER? got 3 months free gamepass from doing it.

im up to enough points and ms discounted their xbl cards so I might redeem all my points for $25. might wait though and not even get anything since I pretty much bought everything I wanted since I got my one x. only new game I am waiting for is re2.

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. I'd played the floppy disk version before. This was my first time playing the CD-ROM version. The voice acting by the original cast definitely adds a lot. I've always been thankful for these games since I very much prefer the original series to anything that came afterward. This gets it about as well as an early 90s game possibly could, with the art design, sounds and music, and the writing being quite faithful.

The game is structured like a mini-season of the show, with you going on completely unrelated adventures, each of which is rooted in certain tropes that are commonly associated with the series (e.g., an episode in which a mythological figure turns out to be a space-faring alien). I think the quality of the episodes is fairly consistent, although I did find the Harry Mudd one a bit lagging behind the others, being more reliant on triggering events (I had to reload an earlier save because I somehow hit a bug and an event wasn't triggering) and there didn't feel like much of a connection between Mudd and the puzzles, which were mostly about you figuring out an ancient alien ship.

I do find the interface clunky, especially when it comes to using inventory items on one another. And of course you have the space battles... I said on another recent thread that the battles feel a lot like the first two Wing Commander games, which just don't evoke the ponderous feel of the ship battles on the show. This comes to a head in the game's ending, in which you have to battle against 3 enemies simultaneously and really just use brute force to overcome them all. No puzzles, nothing with Kirk using his wits to escape an unwinnable situation, just out-maneuver and out-shoot the bastards. It's an absurd difficulty spike, although I did ultimately figure out the solution: Completely cut your speed and just spin in place. The AI is apparently too stupid to zero in on you if you're not moving at all, so you can engage them one at a time and overpower each in a face-to-face shooting match. It ends the game on a down note but it's still a great time for fans of the show.

Call of Juarez

Good game, though playing on Hard I quick-saved/quick-loaded way too many times. And the final boss was BS at all levels.

Titus The Fox: To Marrakech and Back
I got it from GOG community giveaway, donated by Doc0075

I was in a mood for a brutal platformer from 90s - flawed, unfair, hard as nails and yet strangely entertaining. So yeah, Titus was a perfect choice to scratch that itch. It can be quite frustrating especially because the screen will scroll when you reach the edge but there can be an enemy going towards you and you have no chance to avoid it. I believe it's pretty major flaw even in 90s so I don't know how they thought it would be a good idea to implement it. After some time you can get used to it and then the fun begins. In games like Prehistorik you always know where to go but some levels in Titus are real mazes so have to figure out how to reach the exit. And even if a level is simpler you still may pick different ways like directly on the ground or jumping around at the top of buildings. I enjoyed this complexity quite a lot. Overall it took me slightly less than four hours to beat it and now my hands are in pain but oh, well... It was real fun, I can really recommend it to every platformer fan. I've never played it befor so no nostalgia factor!


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Uncharted 2 Remastered PS4


Amazing remastered version that greatly improves the aiming of the base game. The game is gorgeous and with better textures. If you want to revisit this gem that makes you feel like Indiana Jones then the PS4 version is the way to go.

Few minutes ago, I have finished after 53,5 hours, another PC game from GOG: Battle Chasers: Nightwar. All in all, I was having fun most of the time. The turn based combat was fun, and the story was interesting. Around level 16 it started to get little bit grindy, but later, it became faster-pacing again. The final battle made me sweat, because I was not able to kill final boss at level 29. I had to go grind for another 15 minutes or so in the final dungeon. I was lucky and found there nice Attack Bonus Shrine, which helped me a lot in defeating the boss on the next try. I love the art style and really enjoyed playing it, so I hope the developers will make next game soon, and we'll be able to see the continuation of the story of our heroes :) .



Here you can find all of my finished games in 2018.

Sky Hawk

Perhaps this belongs better in Games Quit topic, but all the missions are the same, and the last "# missions beat" achievement is 10 and I beat at least 20, and I got all the upgrade achievements, so I figure I can count this as "finishing" the game. Not a game that should really be charged money for, more like a not very good proof of concept.

Renowned Explorers Bundle
I won it in Lone_Scout’s giveaway

The game is absolutely fantastic - without a doubt the best one I’ve played this year. It’s by the same developer as Reus so you can expected a similar level of complexity. Which means being totally lost at the beginning and slowly mastering each part of the game. The game is all about explorations and looking for artifacts but it can be divided into three major parts:
1) Actual exploration - you move around the map to reach your final destination but you also explore and look for lesser artifacts along the way. There are many challenges all around and you have to plan your journey carefully as you have limited supplies.
2) Battles - there are some encounters but it’s up to you how you want to resolve them. You can be friendly, devious or aggressive (or some combinations). It’s basically rock- paper-scissors mechanics but you can change the mood of the encounter and thus gain advantage (or disadvantage if you don’t know what you are doing).
3) Time in-between explorations - here you can deliver some lectures, invest in science, buy new equipment, hire servants and many more.

Each of these parts is very complex but very well implemented so in order to win you have to master all of them. I won’t go into too many details because it’s a joy to discover everything by yourself. I advise to start playing at low difficulty because completing the game at the most difficult setting requires a lot of experience but trust me - there is a lot of satisfaction after beating the hardest possible setting.

There are two modes, each of them starts the same - you pick a captain and two crew members. There are four classes (scientist, scout, fighter, speaker) and twenty four different characters to choose from. In a standard mode you are supposed to become the most renowned explorers. You know from the beginning how much renown you have to acquire to be the number one. Even so, it’s still a difficult task. In Emperor’s Challenge it gets very tricky - you have to fulfill various tasks given by the Emperor and thus earn points. Nut here you have to compete with your arch-nemesis directly. The trick is that if you don’t fulfill a given task fast enough your rival will and thus you have to set priorities - which tasks are most important for you and which you can let him win. Trust me, it’s not easy to outmaneuver him at higher difficulties.

I cannot recommend the game strong enough. It’s very complex but very entertaining. Playing on easy will let you learn and prepare for bigger challenges. It’s a masterpiece that every strategy fan should have! I’m sure I will play it regularly but now I’ve finished both modes at the highest difficulty so I guess it’s a good time for a little break


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Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (XB1X)

A new turn based tactical game that was just released a week ago. Set in post apocalyptic Sweden where you play as a group of mutants. It's based on a Swedish table top RPG for it's dice based rule set.

The most obvious recent games to reference this one to are the modern XCOM series. But play for a bit and there are significant difference that make it feel like its own thing. For a start all the maps are hand crafted, with everything placed. So exploration (in real time) and clearing all the maps is not only fun, to uncover all the resources and equipment, it's actually pretty essential. The story progresses linearly for the most part through the maps, but there are some optional areas that amount to just opportunities to get some rare loot and level. Compared to XCOM, with it's generic random maps and encounters, this aspect of MYZ is way better.

Then the combat itself. To start with you hit the field with no more than 3 squad members at a time, so each member is crucial. The enemy way outnumbers you and are generally stronger. But you have stealth, they don't. Creeping around the map and scouting out what your up against is a big aspect of this game. Then you use your crews abilities to pick off isolated enemies and deal with them silently before making your main push against the leftovers. It's very tense and rewarding gameplay. Your characters special mutant abilities are essential, learn them and use them and the game is not hugely difficult at normal. Especially useful are your crowd control abilities, like mind control and Bormins charge attack. These abilities help you isolate individuals.

Once you rescue all the mutants you will have 5 characters to chose from to make your 3 man (or pig or duck or fox) squad. Most will go with the starting two as good allrounders, then I used the 3rd one based upon situation- for humanoid enemies I used the guy with mind control, for mechanical enemies I would throw in Farrow for her machine override ability.

Some things I really like: no random enemies or respawning beyond one type of enemy that can summon 3 reinforcements as part of it's special ability. So each map is what you see and you can scope things out and commit to plan without cheap tricks like spawning. Everything is so well balanced, all the enemies special abilities have a way to counter if you plan right and take your time. The interface was simple and worked perfectly with a controller.

Exceptional game, anyone that loves turn based tactical combat will want to play this as soon as the price points meets your personal tastes or threshold. The only slight downsides were the 20 hour (roughly) length...so many games outstay their welcome but this one felt like it was just getting rolling. I think it could do with a few more enemy types, especially wild animals to compliment the Zone Dogs. But at least the enemy types it has are perfectly balanced.

I played it on Game Pass (day one release) so that is a cheap option for Xbox. It's also on PS4 and Steam, but for now you will have to buy at full price.