Well, we can hope. Maybe by 2020 the new distributors will have reached out to GOG?

I read that AFTER my last post...

Seriously... kick in the nuts, way to ruin things.

Well, one can keep hope still...

Include me

finished in 2017
finished in 2018

31/1: Baldur's Gate Siege of Dragonspear (for the 3rd time)
18/2: Call of Duty Black Ops II (PS3)
21/2: Call of Duty Black Ops (PC)
14/3: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (PC)
31/3: Hero of the Kingdom
31/3: Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within
2/4: Hero of the Kingdom II
3/4: Sid Meier's Ace Patrol
12/7: Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
23/8: Euro Truck Simulator 2
4/9: Call of Duty Ghosts (PC)
8/12: Never Alone Arctic Collection
22/12: Journey of a Roach

What Remains of Edith Finch

Before xa_chan's review (which inspired me to play the game sooner than I had intended) I didn't really know what to expect of Edith Finch, except that it's a "walking simulator". Going into it now, I still didn't have much of a clue what it's about, and I think that was a good thing, so I won't talk much about the story, only say that it's a collection of short stories that tie into an overarching plot, and that I found the storytelling to be quite good and powerful. The presentation was top notch as well, interesting scenery and atmosphere, memorable music theme and a cast of various talented voice actors of all ages.

As far as the gameplay goes, like xa_chan already said, it's very linear, the paths are clearly laid out for you and at times it can even cut your exploration short if you move on in the right direction too quickly. And there really weren't any puzzles to speak of, you just walk through a story at your own pace and help it along by pressing a few keys. So even among all the "walking simulators" I've played, this stood out as having only minimal gameplay (more than Dear Esther, but less than most others). I still thought this little interactivity added to the storytelling experience as opposed to just watching a movie, so it was alright.

Technically, although it autoselected the set up for me and deemed my rig good enough to run everything on High, the camera movement didn't feel perfectly smooth to me. Something wasn't quite right, maybe a little delay in turning the view when I moved the mouse, which made me a bit uncomfortable (not quite physically, but it was a bit unsatisfactory). Then again, I often seem to experience this with 3D games, and especially with lower budget ones. I found that using the gamepad to control movement and camera helped to alleviate it, probably due to the slower, less hectic movement of stick vs. mouse control. The game also only offered three resolutions to me, and the only one that came close to my native 1680*1050 and that the game pre-selected was 1920*1080 (no 16:10). Despite being a higher resolution than my screen is able to display, it worked fine though. Apparently the game just shrunk it a little to fit my screen, with small, hardly noticeable black borders on top and bottom.

All in all, not that much of a game, but great interactive storytelling to experience, touching without being sentimental, and even offering a bit food for thought.

Slayaway Camp

Ugh...this one has been sitting in my backlog for a while. This game spends its duration trying to lean on the aesthetic to carry the weak mechanics. I mean, it is a solid enough puzzle game, but most levels have one path to solve, and the differences between the animations grows numb over time.

There's some nice voxel graphics, and lots of nods to the horror genre. Each group of levels is a "tape" to represent a movie for the killer. So much goodness that is the trappings, but the core is pretty darn lacking.

I have the DLC, but I don't see myself playing that.

Mass Effect Andromeda (XB1X)

Held off on this one this one for some time because of it's reputation, especially on consoles. But it's the only BioWare game left to play...so the incurable completionist part of me had to play it. Then, out of the blue, it recently got an XB1X upgrade that no one asked for or expected. So the time was right. The recent patch upgrades the resolution to 1800p- just like the PS4Pro. Unlike the PS4Pro (and other console versions) the XB1X has enough power overhead to run the game mostly locked at it's target frame rate, the other consoles struggle to even hold 25fps during even moderate scenes. It ran quite well overall.

As for the game, it's a bit mixed. It actually does have all the things that made Mass Effect what it was. Epic scope, the cover based combat is actually pretty decent, the companions are mostly good (but not as good as the original ME games). I like the come back of the Mako equivalent, as I always like driving in open world games. Too bad the vehicle here has no gun though- what were they thinking? The much publicised animation and facial outcry from the games release is mostly fixed now.

Somehow the game just didn't quite grab me the same as the original trilogy overall. The side quests were tedious- I hated the game kept sending you all the way back to earlier areas, even right near the end, to do new quests. I guess I'm the sort of methodical gamer that likes to complete areas and have then stay completed...so maybe this is just an issue for me.
It's a game that I really should have taken a break in the middle of, just to keep it fresh.

But in the end it still was enjoyable overall and the game sells for next to nothing on sales and second hand at EB Games. If you loved the first trilogy, you should ignore the haters and still give it a play. I still believe though, that the best ME was the one that was published by Microsoft...I sort of wish that MS, on their current buying spree, would buy back the ME rights from EA and reboot the series with Obsidian at the helm. Yeah that's my wish for 2019.

What Remains of Edith Finch (Epic)

Yes, why not? It was free. I'm open to the occasional walking simulator, mainly as short and easy entertainment to wind down with after huge games- like ME Andromeda for example.

Technically, I had no problems at all with the Epic launcher in any way. Everything just worked. The game itself decided my system was capable of 1440p at max settings. It was wrong. At 1440p I was averaging 45fps and getting the resulting stutter or frame tearing depending on whether V-sync was on or off. At 1080p I was able to lock to 60 indoors with slight drops sometimes in the outdoor areas with long view distance- all this was ultra settings, so that's what I decided to live with.

I liked it. If you go into it knowing what you're getting a linear narrative experience with little game play then you should be good. If you're expecting something else, then don't play it. The game varied and mixed things up a bit more than many walking sims. It did this by telling it's overall story in several self contained mini stories that all feel different and even mix up the art style. I found it pretty interesting. It is short though- little more than 2 hours and no replay value. So factor that into your buying decision- free is good though. Can't complain about free.

Comparing to other walking sims that I'm familiar with, I like this one better than Dear Esther, slightly better than Gone Home (though GH has a great soundtrack). However, for me, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is still the standard in walking sims- just the overall story and theme in that one really grabbed me.

Assassin's Creed Revelations (XB1X)

Replay, this time using the Ezio Collection version. I've always liked the AC open worlds. However this was never one of my favorites in the franchise. They got the open world right, like usual and it finished off both Ezio's and Altair's stories. But this was the game where someone at Ubi decided we just LOVE tailing missions. We can't get enough of them. Plus the optional, full sync, requirements really started going off the rails in this game. Meaning you had to do nonsense things that made no contextual sense to gain 100% sync in many missions- often forcing you to even play suboptimal. Since this is a replay, I just ignored the 100% sync and played it however I felt like and had fun.

Still not my favorite in the franchise, but still fun and Constantinople is a great location for the map.

Life is Strange 2 Ep1 (XB1X)

Episode 1 released onto Game Pass recently (with future episodes apparently on a timed arrival). Obviously being the first episode, this one is concerned primarily with setting up the main story and characters. It has me hooked enough to keep on with it when the future episodes show up on game pass as well.

Whilst I liked the first game overall, I did not like most of the characters due to all the teen drama that felt like a bad Australian Soap Opera at times. But Life is Strange 2 has me really liking the main characters so far (2 brothers) which has me far more invested in them and seeing where things go. Looking forward to this series going forward.

Celeste (XB1X)

One of last months GwG titles. A very highly rated and very HARD platformer. Yes HARD with capital letters. I'd actually say it's the hardest I've personally played. I haven't played Super Meat Boy, I don't know if Celeste is harder than that. In fact, if I'm honest, the game was harder than I prefer really. That is why I played it in chunks over several weeks. It's a game where you die, die ,die, learn what needs to be done, die, die, die, die, finally get your fingers around the button sequence needed or just get lucky, move to the next screen and repeat. Some people love this sort of challenge, but I find it wears me out simply because I spend far too long not seeing any progression...similar to how I don't like old point and click adventures with their obtuse puzzles where you can look at the same screens for hours working out what to do- I lack that type of patience. Yet, if I enjoy the mechanics, I can grind away for hours happily in an RPG...because at least I'm seeing progression.

But this game is amazingly crafted and excellent at what it is meaning to be and does deserve it's high praise and ratings. And it did hook me enough so that I had to keep coming back to keep on trying- I don't like giving up on things. But I'll still take a 2d Rayman platformer over this type of platformer any day. Don't know why Celeste isn't on GoG...maybe they decided they had one too many difficult pixel art platformers? The developer has already put it onto Xbox Gwg...I think PS Plus is probably not far away, then maybe a GoG release.

Assault Android Cactus (XB1X)

Pretty fine twin stick shooter that was released onto GwG as a day one release last year. Made by a 3 man dev team. Twin stick shooters...I'm REALLY bad at them, which is why I don't play many. But I gave this one a try last year and got more than half way through and was having a ball. Then I hit a bit of a wall on a certain level and put it aside. Like I said, I'm bad a these sorts of games but I was really liking this one. So I came back to it for another shot. The key was to learn some of the other Androids- I fell into the trap of learning 2 favorites and stubbornly ignoring the others. But some levels are way easier with certain Androids due to their vastly different attacks and abilities. By mixing things up a bit I could get past the bits that were giving me trouble. There are 8 Androids that you unlock during the campaign, of course you start with Cactus- a good allrounder.

Graphics are in 4K and colourful, it never drops a frame from 60fps and controls great. It's not very long- most will finish in not much over 6 hours, but it's a quality 6 hours. It's not on GoG, but it can be purchased DRM free direct from the developers website (via Humble, which also comes with a Steam key). Or just get it on one of the consoles.

Shadowgrounds & Shadowgrounds Survivor (Bought on Gamersgate but available on GOG)

I've had these for a while but got stuck on the final boss encounter in Shadowgrounds, so I gave up for a while. When I finally tried to play again, I realised that the boss wasn't as hard to kill as I had initially thought and my approach was just wrong. All in all, I found Shadowgrounds was fairly fun. I didn't play at too high a difficulty though as there's no way to save mid-level, and you can only respawn four times in a level before you're forced to restart the level from scratch. The levels are pretty big though, but I do understand that being unable to save does add to the tension though. The various weapons were fun and being able to upgrade them in varous ways over the course of the game kept the game feeling fresh.

The sequel, Shadowgrounds Survivor, is a smaller but different take on the gameplay of Shadowgrounds. You play as three different characters over the course of the game, which also serves to keep the gameplay feeling fresh. There are no boss fights, but you do get to face a ridiculous amount of bad guys at varous points in the game which serve as "boss" fights.

All in all, I found them to be pretty fun top-down shooters and I will probably play them again at some point.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (bought on GOG)

I'm not a fan of the film series (...OK, the first film was quite good...), but I enjoyed the game quite a bit. Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference, like how Jack Sparrow runs in such a drunken way that you keep expecting his character to fall over. The animations were really fluid, and the levels were fairly diverse. I found the levels set in towns the most fun though as the game feels a little more open ended in those levels. And the music really added to the experience. Of all the levels, I'd regard the "Singapore" level as my favourite.

The game is perfectly playable on a keyboard instead of with a controller, but there were a couple of jump sequences that I did find a little challenging using the keyboard to get the right angles, but with a little practice they were doable... and I'm not that good at platforming anyway.

My favourite character was Marty, a little guy with a big gun, which made blowing up LEGO bricks really fast & fun. At the beginning of the game it gets a little challenging collecting enough studs, but once you collect enough to start unlocking the multipliers, you soon end up with so many studs that it becomes a non-issue.

I had the game crash a couple of times, but I was playing on Windows XP which isn't officialy supported. Before starting a long level, I'd just exit and restart the game to reduce my chances of experiencing a crash in the game and I didn't have to replay too many levels as a consequence.

I'm not a fan of achievements, but in a game like this, the achievements certainly add to the replayability. To earn the full achievements for each level, you need to collect a cetain amount of studs, find all the hidden items pointed to by Jack's compass, and collect a certain number of ships in a bottle. I can vouch for the achiements extending the replayability because once I'd unlocked them all, I was happy to call it a day with the game.

Just finished the base campaign in StarCraft: Remastered. Apparently that marks the third time that I've finished the entire campaign. Earlier this year SC:R was on sale so I figured that that would be a great occasion to play through the whole thing again and this time I will hopefully go on to beat the Brood War campaign as well (which I've never done - the last time I tried my computer broke down).

I guess I have to be super careful this time since as much as implying that StarCraft might in fact not be perfection incarnate is how you get burned at the stake. So okay, it's StarCraft as everyone knows and loves it, I'll just address the remaster and the how the campaign has aged over the years.

First off: the remaster is good but not perfect. Sure, all the new sprites look great but there's a few things that irk me. On one hand it's cool that instead of just increasing the resolution they added details to all the units, buildings, terrain etc., however, I would have appreciated being able to see a bit more of the battlefield. At least the view has been widened a bit. What disappointed me most, though, was that they only replaced existing sprites but didn't add new ones and the first time I launched SC:R my eyes kinda melted when I saw these crisp new graphics combined with terrible animations. I really would have appreciated if they had gone through the effort of increasing the framerate of the unit animations or adding more angles to them.

Also, I'm not necessarily a fan of the new unit / character faces or the new slideshows between the missions. What annoys me is that they changed the style to make everything look more in line with StarCraft II. It's stupid. Kerrigan, especially as a Zerg, looked far more interesting and intimidating in her original version. Also, it's kinda stupid that Raynor is shown wearing that same biker outfit he wears in StarCraft II. Oh come on! StarCraft II takes place a couple of years later, Raynor has developed a bit as a character in that time, there's no need to retcon the first game's character designs to make them fit Blizzard's generic modern style. Apparently they also rerecorded the voices but frankly everything sounds the way it did in my memory, go figure. Interestingly the music seems pretty much untouched but it holds up perfectly fine anyway.

Then there's the thing that they didn't touch anything else about the game and returning to it now I noticed lots of quirks. I kinda get it that they didn't want to touch any of the game's logic but oh boy, some of that stuff has aged terribly, especially the unit behaviour and pathfinding. Also the UI is far from perfect. There's of course the thing that you still can't select more than 12 units at once, there's no smart select (that skips builder units when dragging a box), double clicking units to select all of one class is kinda unreliable (sometimes I just selected and deselected the same unit instead), it's impossible to track energy or the shields of Protoss units in the unit bar, the bindings of unit abilities are shitty, abilities that should be automated (and actually were in WC3 and SC2) have to be triggered manually... lots of stuff they probably could have safely improved in the remaster without starting a war with South Korea but they didn't. Meh.

As for the campaign... it hasn't aged well. I mean, the story is still great for an RTS, the format with the briefings etc. holds up perfectly fine. The mission design and enemy behaviour has aged terribly, though, and the campaign is very monotonous and tiresome, at least for an average RTS player like me. In pretty much all missions the enemy is very passive, only launching laughable attacks, so it's easy to just keep building one's army until one has a strong formation that it is able to surgically work through the enemy's defenses which is possible due to StarCraft's complex unit dependencies which are simply beyond the AI's capabilities. Most missions can be bruteforced by spamming a combination of two unit types - the result may be slow and boring but it works. The only thing that makes the game remotely difficult is the AI's godlike reflexes when it comes to "spellcaster" units like science vessels, queens or templar. The genre sure has come a long way since then and frankly even some RTS games from that same era, even if not as "good" as StarCraft, are simply more fun to me in singleplayer. Oh yeah, and all the hero missions (besides the first one, maybe) are utter shit.

So as amazing and perfect and bla bla bla as StarCraft may be mechanically as a multiplayer title, its singleplayer portion is just good, not mindblowingly awesome in retrospect.

Edna and Harvey: The Breakout, Feb 2 (GOG)-This game chugged along for a while and then about midway through the game a puzzle got so illogical that I gave up and used a walkthrough for the rest. The interface was really annoying. You couldn't just click on an object you had to select look at, talk to, pick up, or use first and if you misclicked you had to choose again. I don't remember the sequel being this annoying. Overall pretty average and the fact that the ending was bugged was pretty terrible.

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