Resumed my playthrough in Second Sight, I played on PS2, did not grab GOG version because Codemasters are Master of Fast Pullout, hehebleh.
I will never forget them Severance pullout, nah.

Back to the game - not that great in gameplay department compared to PsiOps, too much restrictions.
Worst part is that firearms are useless beside flashbacks episodes. Once you fire them in sneaking section you gonna be swarmed by spawning enemies.
Everyoen hate respawning enemies, no question there.
Only firing with possesed enemies is safe. You can spam them with PSI attacks but there is a high chance you gonna be betrayed by borked autoaim. Not pleasant experience.
Also - grabbing enemies from behind does not work when you crouch (often catch me off guard because it's not a problem in other games), also declocking (Charm) might give some problem here.

Aiming is sometimes awkward, and have different sensitivity in some angles or I don't know, there was certainly something wrong.

Really like the story and the way it goes. Past meet the presents and show you possible future.

There is some connection with Psi Ops - both games have weird cartoons-like facial expressions. Huh.

Finished Submerged. No difficulty here, you must explore a city that has been submerged. You need to climb 10 buildings to find supplies for your brother. The story of the character is explained with pictures every time you find one of those supplies while the story of the city is explained with pictures that are unlocked by exploring the map. It is entirely optional.

I liked it a lot but it must not be played in one session but rather by small ones to avoid repetitivity.

Full list here.

Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon (2003) (Linux/Wine)

Thanks to opinions from the forum (thanks supplementscene, groundhog42, Ghorpm!) I know I'm not the only one who consider this game as the worst part of the series. And thanks to them I'm looking for better BS4 and really good BS5.

The story was quite fine, but controls, sokoban puzzles and action elements... terrible, just terrible. When I was looking at bonus concept art available after finishing the game, I thought it's pity that the game has not been made as previous ones - in beautiful hand-drawn 2D. I remember how much I hated 3D, when it stole my beloved 2D point&clicks series (Monkey Island, Broken Sword and others). And after all these years I feal exactly the same.

List of all games completed in 2018.

Soul Blazer. It's an enjoyable Zelda/Ys-like game that doesn't take too long to get through. It's something of a sequel/spiritual successor to Actraiser in that you control a warrior who serves "the Master" (i.e., God) and you have to restore a ruined world by carving through tons of monsters. Even some of the music sounds like it's based on Actraiser's themes.

Where it differs, though, is that instead of a linear city builder/god game sequence as Actraiser had, you instead go into the infested areas and kill monsters as they emerge from their lairs, and then when you've taken care of them all, you step on the button left behind and it either returns captured people to their town or opens up more areas for you to explore and fight more monsters. Then you return to the town and speak to everyone you freed to get important items or hints on where to get items.

The controls are a tad stiff but it's not a big deal because it's not a particularly difficult game. Most of the combat comes down to keeping a bit to the side of an enemy so they can't hit you but the arc of your sword will cut them. Graphically it looks fine but it's not some major SNES showcase. Locating a couple of the items can be a little obtuse, though, and I literally never even tried a couple of the spells you get later in the game.

Elder Schrollls: Oblivion and Skyrim
Robin Hood: the Legend of Sherwood
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Outlaws
Under a killing Moon
Torchlight 2
Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure

Finished Late Shift, an interactive movie with choices. I got one of the 7 endings and I'll probably get back to it to get one or two other endings. Rather entertaining.

Full list here.

The Raven Remastered, Jul 31 (GOG)-I really liked the story for this one. The first half was excellent when you play as Constable Zellner. Gameplay and story stumbled a bit in the second half when you start playing as other characters. None of the puzzles were too difficult, in fact in the second half several were too easy and not really puzzles at all. With the exception of a couple of weird animations the graphics were great, dialogue and voice acting were great, and the music was great. If you're looking for a good mystery adventure game that skews slightly too easy, I can definitely recommend this.

And with that I've equalled my total for games completed in 2017 in 7 months. Hurray for more gaming.

Full List

Grand Theft Auto 3

Big step up from GTA2 but it was surpassed by following games in the series Saints Rows and other.
Still it was fun despite, or maybe thanks to, it's wonky physics causing numerous crazy deaths.

It took me some 35 hours I think to get 100% completion and I had to use guides for the last 8 or so packages.


This post was originally longer but the brower closed itself and the comment got deleted and I can't be bothered to write it again.


Complete list.

Tangledeep
I got it from GOG community giveaway, donated by DampSquib

It’s a very good Roguelike with tons of replayability, decent story, great number of skills, items, enemies and locations. Each job is significantly different and my require using different approach. I finally beat the game with Hunter and had a lot fun. My biggest complaint is that the game is very grindy at the beginning. You have to level up fast without spending your resources so grinding is your only option. Training and upgrading a pet can also be a boring chore but after that you can start going up to see new levels. I wouldn’t say the game is perfect nor innovative but it’s definitely a well-polished Roguelike so if you like the genre you should have tons of fun. Recommended!


Full list

Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity. It's a point and click (ScummVM compatible) in which you have to help Beavis and Butthead in their quest to convince Todd, the local white trash scumbag they worship, to let them in his gang. If you like the show, you'll probably like this because, much like the South Park RPGs, it practically is the show. The cut-scenes use the same animation, Mike Judge and the other original voice actors do all the performances, and if you click on the TV the game will play a music video for the boys to chortle through. Personally, I do like the show, although mostly in small doses because the main characters are so limited in personality that it's tough to get them in consistently entertaining situations.

As a game, I think it's okay but not some lost classic or anything. The more you go along, the more frequently it felt to me like the puzzles were resorting to moon logic, and by the time I was nearly done I was in "eh, screw it, just click everything on everything" mode full-time. I had to look up a walkthrough because I was stumped and it turned out I wasn't clicking the precise part of an object the game wanted me to to solve the puzzle. Most of the entertainment value of the game is from just using the look command on everything and hearing the boys make their usual observations. To be honest, I think one of the reasons I didn't play this when it came out was that I somehow got the idea that it wasn't a game so much as an interactive experience - I was probably confusing it with the Simpsons Virtual Springfield program from back then.

Dungeon Rats
I got it from GOG community giveaway, donated by Doc0075

The game is much simpler then Age of Decadence, in a sense that there is not complicated story, tons of text to read nor multiple choices how to progress the game. No, Dungeon Rats is focused on turn based combats and man, it’s fantastical. It kinda remind me Temple of Elmental Evil which is also full of fights and they are really challenging. With many different skills, crafting and alchemy you can try different strategies to finish you opponents. Just be aware that the game is almost completely about combats so it can indeed get a bit repetitive. Personally I don’t complain because it’s so well done you want to fight one more battle before switching your computer off. My only problem is that the surroundings are pretty dull all the time. Yeah, I know, I know what diversity should be expected in a mine, but come on! A little creativity never hurts. Highly recommended if you like tactical combats! If you prefere story based RPG pick Age of Decadence. And if you like both, pick both, you won’t regret it!


Full list

Castlevania (NES Classic)

Needed a mid game break from Wasteland 2. Castlevania needs no introduction. Platform your way through 18 short stages and battle some mid bosses and finally kick the final boss. The mid bosses were really easy except for Grim Reaper, which took me a few tries. Then the final boss, he was not easy...I ended up using the holy water double shot stun lock trick on him.

The beauty of using modern emulators or a NES classic is that you can train yourself on the difficult sections (like the final boss) by using save points and then put it all together for a proper no save run as intended, once you've learnt all the enemy moves and pitfalls. I saved after each mid boss, then used trial and error to learn the stages to the next boss on so on. When I finished the game that way, it took me about 4 tries to get a proper, no save, run using everything I learnt. Without learning the game with save points it would take me weeks of practice to finish...actually no it wouldn't, I'd probably lose interest and never finish.

The NES Classic seems to do a decent job of emulating, though I've heard some say that the sound is different to an original. I don't know it's been more than 28 years since I played a real NES and that was through an old CRT TV with a single little speaker and here I am with the NES Classic through a Hi Fi system...so yeah, no shit it sounds different.

This War of Mine
I got it from GOG community giveaway, donated by Lazarus_03

This is definitely a unique game, showing a war from a different perspective. Did I enjoy it? Well… sorta. The thing is, the game is supposed to make you feel bad about the decisions you have to make. The problem is I never really feel bad about so called moral choices in games. With so many difficult situations in real life I don’t get emotional about games. So I guess this game is not really for me because you can get so much more from it if you can really feel bad while playing games. For me it was more about gameplay features - if I ended up with a group of egocentric jerks I did bad things to increase my chance of survival. If I had many altruistic people in my group I was trying to be better to prevent the depression. Funny enough, I was able to win the game more often with good deeds than bad. Be that as it may - the biggest part of the game was not that satisfying for me but if you can really relate to feelings of your characters you may have a great time playing it.

The rest of the game like upgrading your base, crafting, scavenging for supplies was solid but nothing really special. At some point day time activities became rather boring and only night time escapades were exciting.

So for a person like me who generally craves for cool gameplay features the game is just solid but if you prefer atmosphere and enjoy moral choices in games - go for it.


Full list

I'm not a great fan of tactical combat, but I completed the game as a preparation for Age of Decadence challenge (thanks, goral, for the game!). And it was really great. I loved how challenging it was, how every aspect of fight (initial position, direction of attack, used techniques, equipment, style of attack, skills, types of arrows, crafted items etc.) make difference.

I'm happy to hear that ToEE (which I've got here but never played before) is somewhat similar.