Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (XB1X)

Recently added to game pass, so I slotted it in whilst waiting for The Outer Worlds later this month. It's also on GOG so most people probably know a bit about this one. It's a essentially a new Castlevania Symphony of the Night game in all but name. Well that's what they say, the only Castlevania I've played are the older NES, pre-Symphony of the Night games. But I'll take people word for it.

I had a great time with it. It features stuff I like- lots of exploration, in fact it's essential to explore. The combat is okay, pretty easy on normal it must be said, graphics are great- 4K/60 on a XB1X and I experienced only one spot of slow down in one single particular boss fight- everything else ran just fine. I like the art direction, it looks like a Castlevania game with new technology- I'm a bit over this current trend of everything having to be old school pixel art.

There are loads of weapons, items and techniques to find through exploration or grinding and crafting. Getting to the first "normal" ending is quite easy and pretty much is the games casual mode. Continuing past that point is much more involved and doubles the length of the game and the number of boss fights.

The boss fights were not hard for the most part, I was able to get them all on one or two tries except for the 2 fights against the demon hunter dude. For some reason that guy gave me lots of trouble on both occasions. But you can always just cheese any boss fight by spending all your gold on stacks of pizza or similar and simply spam healing until the boss falls over.

Only one real annoyance in the game that I consider serious. After getting to the bad ending and realising I needed to keep exploring for a better ending I hit a bit of a wall and didn't know how to proceed soon after. I had explored everywhere and killed every available boss and still didn't have something needed to progress. So I eventually looked it up online only to find out that I did the right thing...it's just that I had to keep on farming a particular enemy type until a RNG got me the item drop I needed. That's right, progression was gated behind an RNG. How is a player expected to know that? Keep doing something that isn't working until it just suddenly randomly does work. It's not logical. So once I did know I farmed the one enemy about 30 times until it dropped what I wanted. It's the only time the game did that, everything else was found through exploring the environment or beating bosses.

Great game overall, just don't be afraid to look up a guide if you get stuck at the same place that I did. The game also seems to be a sequel, of a sort, to the earlier Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon- even having a shared boss.

Oh yeah, I know, actually the reason I decided to revisit the original game is that I got the sequel dirt cheap for PS3 last year. I guess I'll play the sequel rather soon. And thanks for the info with the better investigation. Sounds good.

Enjoy it, but remember that the promised continuation hinted at by the ending will likely never come.

The investigation bits, btw, require you to go into "investigation mode" and look for clues/symbols to use in the questions others ask you and you ask yourself....so make sure when investigating to check for all possible clues as some will be better for your overall score and outcome than others in the same area, and to not go too far into new areas without searching old areas for clues when allowed/prompted.

I also believe there may be secondary objectives to find as well like blowing up drug stills and such, so be on the lookout.

Punchout!! (Wii)

I loved Super Punch Out on the SNES so I was excited to finally finish my Wii backlog with this gem. Punchout!! is the 3rd game in the main punchout series (If you don't count those arm wrestling and alien boxing games). Punchout is a boxing game where you play as Little Mac, a boxer who isn't the tallest or the strongest, but routinely comes up against enemies much bigger than him. Many enemies have special attacks that can floor you in 1 or 2 hits, but fortunately they'll either have a tell for that attack, or they'll perform attacks in a set pattern giving you the chance to dodge them. This makes it more like a puzzle or rhythm game, requiring good memory and quick reflexes. There are 3 rounds of 3 minutes in length. You win either by removing your enemies 'stamina' bar 3 times in 1 round, KO'ing your opponent (Conditions on causing this varies between opponents) or by surviving until the end of round 3 and winning by decision, unless you have been refusing to throw any punch's it is unlikely you'll ever lose by decision, and this also provides an opportunity for more defensive players to win (In previous games if you reached the end of round 3 you'd always lose).

There are 13 opponents in total, each one getting progressively more difficult, and then a harder version of each opponent, these harder version's usually result in more cheap tactics, for example one opponent wears armour that you have to remove before you can damage them and another opponent attacks you with a rope. There is also a secret opponent, a character from another Nintendo franchise, fightable in the title defense mode unlocked at the end. The character design is memorable, each opponents personality is perfectly captured by their move set, and the variation in designs makes each opponent interesting. Story is simple but isn't needed, the game is difficult but can be completed through perseverance. Motion controls are optional (There's even support for the Wii Fit Balance Board), meaning this game could easily be ported to the Switch, and I hope it will. This is my favourite game played on the Wii this year (I've only play two though) and I would highly recommend this game.

Bioshock Remastered

Bioshock is one of my favourite games of all time but I havent completed it since the came out for the Xbox. Since I have recently started really playing on ShadowPC I decided to replay it in 4k glory. For me anyway, it's still a great game and what was good for me is I forgot about sections of the game. What I did find is the later levels feel a bit samey and managing your ammo gets a tad annoying. The end boss was as remembered, easy to kill and underwhelming.

The first half of the game was as good as I remembered but the second half really dragged in and imo outstayed its welcome. I found I was wanting the game to end rather than wanting more which was disappointing but it didnt outstay its welcome to long. If you havent played it however it is well worth the play as the story is excellent.

Unreal Tournament: Operation Na Pali.

This is Single Player mod for good old UT.

Full description and download is here.
Works fine with version of UT available on GOG, but you need also some umod extractor if you want to install it.

Everyone who finished Unreal Gold should like it.
Additional things compared to Unreal:
- You can setup which weapons you want to use: old weapons from U, or new weapons from UT.
- Supporting NPCs (eg. Nali or even Skaarj!), but you don't need them to complete the game (you can turn off this feature by shooting them ;)
- Voice acting
- And Credits ;)

I think this mod is better than original Unreal and deserves for it's own store page on GOG, as free DLC for UT, or at least the link on UT Store Page.
If the Unreal was for you perfect game 10/10, you will rate this mod at 11/10 ;)
I can truly recommend.

Warcraft 3 (again)

Think this is the 4th/5th time I've finished it, the 2nd time on hard, and the first time with a proper widescreen resolution. Game is still is as amazing as ever. Unfortunately with recent patches there are 2 levels in which your hero doesn't have an inventory: the second Grom Hellscream level and the second Tyrande Whisperwind level. Not too horrible, but not being able to pick up the gloves of haste in the latter stings :P

Now for a short break before I try the expansion game again as well. I recall there being several very difficult levels on hard.

WoW:D

HIVESWAP: Act 1 (I played the Steam version)

This game is a point-and-click adventure.

On the positive side it has nice artwork, sound, and writing. There are no voiceovers (yes, I do prefer this so I consider it a plus) and I enjoy how extra background information is revealed as you explore. There are occasional minigames, which are OK and a good change of pace.

On the negative side, the game is extremely linear and easy. It took me about 3 hours, I think I was pretty thorough so it could be completed more quickly if you’re more focused. It also ends mid-story because more chapters were planned (it's been two years, so I don't know if any more will be coming).

Overall I’d rate it “OK”, it’s recommended if you enjoy a nice relaxing story but not if you’re looking for a challenge.

CSI: Fatal Conspiracy(PS3)

The game itself is pretty decent, with the standard mechanics in such games and the basic plot of "person dead, find killer from 3 available suspects".

The good: Decent if repetitive music and graphics. Plot is also pretty good and the unexpected ending(listed below in spoilers) was refreshing compared to how most other such games end. The game itself is also fun if you are a CSI/forensic investigation game fan.

The bad: The ending episode is a bit short, the killer known already(though they still make it seem like it's going to be someone else by charting other suspects as well), and the ending a bit rushed for my tastes. The game itself also does the same scheme where you cannot accuse anyone you want and live with the results of that....you are railroaded into one suspect as the one you can arrest at the end of every case.

They also cram a bit of silly advertising for antivirus makers and pc hardware makers in wherever possible.

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Spoilers: I liked that the end criminal/boss got away, hinting at a sequel/continuation, instead of the game ending as usual for such fare with the big bad being locked up permanently. I don't know if a sequel was made or is going to be made, though, as I haven't looked into it as of yet.
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Overall: A decent entry with a non-standard ending for such games, that is fun for fans of the game type & a decent value if you can get it for around 10 bucks or so. A 6.5/10 in my book.

Tesla vs Lovecraft

Twin stick shooter that is pretty much what it says on the tin. Tesla style future weapons shooting eldritch horrors. It's level based, and takes a couple levels to really get going, but it is so much stupid fun. Responsive, has a random component on any given run (perks that you get by leveling up mid-level, none of it carries over) and there's decent variety of powers, weapons, and perks so you can play different styles and switch up on the fly.

Really enjoyed the game bunches.

Amnesia: Memories (Steam)

It's a very highly rated VN. I've never played a true VN before, but I got this one as part of a Humble package where I got the Hyperdimension games for $1. So I decided to try it for an hour or so each evening when I was getting dinner ready. Well now I know that VN's are not my thing at all. It's just painfully dull. The graphics were good though. Most of the music made me feel like I was in the freezer isle of the supermarket. The story is about an amnesiac. The characters are all annoying.

I got one bit of enjoyment: after naming my character "Buttwhore", I found it pretty funny to have all the characters in the story calling her Buttwhore with a perfectly straight face. Or the first time the character rembers her own name..."Buttwhore...that's just sounds right somehow...". Yep, that's the only real fun I had with this. I think that says it all really.

I did sell off those steam trading cards for 50 cents though.

SOMA

From all the positiv reviews I was really looking forward to playing this game. I knew roughly what the story is going to be and what theme the game would tackle. Unfortunately, nearly everything is only treated in a very superficial way.
The underwater station is in extreme disrepair and infiltrated by a rogue AI. What it wants and why it converts all living things into machine hybrids is only mentioned in one short audio log close to the end.
The surface world ended. Everything and everyone is dead there as well. That's all there is to know about that.
The main themes about existentialism are never really explored, because the main conflict that arises from copying minds is never really touched upon. And the one time the main character's mind got duplicated, the resulting conflict is immediately avoided by deactivating the previous copy and with that, the idea of how the value and the uniqueness of an individual is impacted, or not, is never really pondered beyond a "That's kinda fucked up!".
His journey of coping with this new situation and his weird state of existing goes from a rather passive acceptance to a generalized "What does it mean to be Human?". The plot and its progression seem to be very disconnected from the exploration of the themes. When the character finds the audio logs of how the world ended, we don't even get a reaction from him - not even a "Bummer!". The idea of defeatism is not even brought up.
And on top of all this, the main character is kinda an idiot. At the end, the mind of him and his companion is copied one more time and shot to space in an attempt to secure something from mankind for the future. When the upload finishes, the MC starts complaining about still being on the bottom of the ocean and asks why he is not on the rocket to space. This made me laugh, cause not even an hour earlier, the MC got his mind copied into a new pressure suit, while the old mind in the other suit was still operational. So he knew that copying the mind would not get him off the planet, but only the new instance of his mind. And yet he starts to argue with his companion and the only sane mind on this planet.
Overall I give this game a solid 'meh'. It's a little bit too long for too little plot and a lack of depth, which is ironic, cause part of the plot is to go deeper into the ocean.
A somewhat somber start into Spooktober and my next game is going to be F.E.A.R. 3. The most frightening part of that game is to see how easy a franchise can end when making a horror game into a coop game! :D

FEAR 3 is semi-decent in terms of cutscenes, voice acting, some levels/settings, and the like. You can also play as either of two characters, BUT you can only use one of them until you finish the first level/entire game(I forget which).