I just finished playing Batman: Arkham Origins

Fallout New Vegas

A Good Snowman is Hard to Build
A solid and well designed puzzle game. It's pretty short though (completed it in 2 hours) I wish there would be more levels or a level editor. There's a bonus mode (dream mode once you've completed the game), but I didn't like that very much.


Nightmares from the Deep - The Cursed Heart
A typical Hidden Object game. Neither story nor puzzles were anything special. But it was good entertainment for about three hours.

Complete list of finished games in 2020

Ace Combat 6 Fires of Liberation (XB1X)

Xbox 360 exclusive, played on Xbox One with back compatibility with the usual benefits that brings. The first Ace Combat game I've played, this one is noteworthy because Namco took what was a Sony PlayStation series up to that point and released the 6th game as an Xbox exclusive instead- which made a lot of butthurt fanboys in the other camp. It's a good game, more so because this type of arcade flight combat game is almost extinct these days, the last notable one that I can think of, that isn't Ace Combat, is Crimson Skies.

It's an odd setting, Ace Combat uses real life licensed aircraft likenesses- but with arcade flight parameters (these are not sims) and then puts them into a totally fantasy world. It works okay. The missions were good fun and built up the challenge and tension. I liked the mission structure especially. Instead of just a single objective or objectives, these missions use "operations". A mission could have from 3 to as many as 6 operations on the large maps and to be victorious you need to complete a quota of operations- so a 3 operation mission will need you to complete a quota of 2 of them, 6 operations needs 4 to pass. The operations will vary in content, some are primarily air-air, some air-ground and some are a mix. So you can select an A-10 as your aircraft and concentrate on the ground operations and complete the mission that way for example, or use an F-15 and go air to air in the same mission. Each completed operation releases allied support units that can then help you with the other operations- and they really do help.

It ran really smoothly and looks great for an early 360 title. Unfortunately you can only buy it now as a second hand disc version, digital versions were pulled from sale due to expired aircraft licenses some time ago. But I found my disc a few weeks back at EB for only a few dollars, which was a lucky find as it's not a common second hand game. I assume that licensing is also the main reason the earlier PS1 and PS2 games have also never reappeared on PS4 as PS Classic titles.

GTFO (PC/Steam) - Early access
Not really finished the game, but all available maps were completed with me alive at the end of evacuation. Really good game. Can't wait for new maps with cave system and such as seen in 3 years old trailer, and "new" old interface is dope, I want that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vSYJckIfi8

Slay the Spire on Xbox One (playing it right now on PC for the new class)

Currently trying to beat Into the Breach PC, but it is harder than I thought on a normal run :D

Easily the most atmospheric game I've ever played :) Speaking of classic books and movies, have you read any Philip K Dick, whose 'Androids of Electric Sheep' was the inspiration for the film and game?

Sure! I've read most of P.K.Dick. I've never expected it is possible to create in computer game his dim atmosphere of dirty and doomy future. Gosh, this game is like written by Dick himself.

Awesome author :) I've only read three of his books though: Androids, Maze of Death and Ubik
Interestingly I found that the parts of the book were more faithfully adapted in the game rather than the movie (not that either I think at all aimed to adapt the book's story), specifically that part where a fake cop arrests him (if memory serves that is)

Just beat The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (original game without expansions) for the first time with mod “over 9000 weight”. This games deserve comparison with games as Ultima: Underworld, Divine Divinity etc. Witcher is deeply story driven with fantastically depicted characters which made you believe, that you play in the world which could exist. After playing this games, I started thinking about Witcher (1) which I always quited due to terrible battles, but story is so great, so I would like to know it from the begging to the end. Despite more than 100 hours needed to finish the game if you do also side quests and explore many question marks on the map I must say, that each character got only relatively small amount of time and I can imagine, that there would be more quests (or more DLCs) to enjoy all friends, allies and enemies. The end was a little bitter for me… there were a lot of unanswered questions as what happened with Marigold? … what is better end for Ciri the witcher or queen? ...etc.

Pros:
- extremely deep story with many different views and philosophical ideas (friendship, romance, justice, moral choice, deciding based on nothing, ...)
- game is focused to player enjoyment
- many things can be changed in game or by mods for “game as you want”
- it is obvious, that there is high replay-ability value added
- 16 free DLCs added more quests
- many points of interest for exploration

Cons:
- during mission with Keira battle system made me change difficulty, otherwise I had no problem with higher difficulty which should be used in my opinion
- not DRM free, when firewall disconnects Witcher, than game does not run (as some other games here, known galaxy issue)
- some smaller issues as invisible walls, mainly on Skellige

Neutral:
- game story makes you to play it more than once
- after some time too many points of interest are not interested anymore if it cost you time which leads to almost no reward (what makes sense, not each point can bring something better and better)

Finished 1954 Alcatraz. It was an average point'n click. Story is interesting and there are optional things to do which may affect the outcome. There were a few puzzles that were not really well done unfortunately... I still recommend it if you like point'n clicks.

Full list here.

Not that this wouldn't be in itself a huge issue and against the sole remaining thing this place still claims to stand for after giving up on everything else, but assume it at least doesn't apply to those not using Galaxy as well, right?

I am not a monster: First Contact

I am not a Monster is a turn based strategy game in the same vein as X-Com. The game has a 50's/60's space comic aesthetic that is pretty unique and is really interesting. The story follows a variety of characters as they battle aliens aboard a luxury space cruise liner, the characters you play as change across the levels, characters may discover hidden talents as the levels go on, or they can be killed off. Most of the characters have a secret their hiding, which is revealed as the story goes on. Quite a few of the levels are morally questionable, which is due to one specific character, and these specific 'missions' are the worst in the game as they are slow, limit you special abilities and are incredibly hard. Battles are fought by planning your attacks beforehand, than all characters and NPC's execute their actions at the same time.

The game itself is quite challenging, probably more so than X-com because of four things:
1. You can only move AFTER an attack, however enemies can. This means if a group of enemies enter the room your in, they can fill you full of holes before you reach cover.
2. HP doesn't increase as you progress but weapon damage does. All playable characters and all enemies have 100hp, at the start weapons will deal around 20 damage and hit 1 target. Near the end of the game you can get weapons that do 60 - 80 damage, and many aliens carry these weapons. Cover reduces damage by half and you can also get special items that halve all damage taken, however there are weapons in the game which deal the same damage regardless of cover, and one weapon that deals damage if your carrying any damage reducing items.
3. A character doesn't die until their turn finishes. You might think this is a good thing, if your characters attempts to heal themselves and they get shot to 0hp, they heal themselves to 30hp, saving them from death. The flipside of this enemies can still shoot at you when they have 0hp, you can see the issue this causes in missions where you face an onslaught of continuous enemies.
4. There is no quicksave, missions have 'checkpoints' which either activate after a battle finishes or in some missions, after a certain number of turns passes.
5. Friendly AI is awful. There are many missions that involve minimising civillian casualties. These missions are the worst because friendly guards seem to decide which enemy to attack at random, they will also quite happily shoot through your characters if it means killing an alien, which deals damage. Meanwhile the alien with 10hp goes around killing civillians while the guards aim at the alien too far away to do any damage. Civillians are also only programmed to run away if attacked, which means they will quite happily stand around while enemies line up their shot.

A lot of reviews I saw describe the campaign as either 'Excellent and Challenging' or 'Slow and Unfair', and depending on the mission, both are probably true. When you can be killed in 2 or 3 hits, levels with time limits, 20 enemies and only 3 characters to control can seem impossible, however sometimes you realise that you can get into positions where you can ambush approaching enemies or group them together to gun down at the same time, and quite a few levels do this. However several missions in the game don't, and it's these missions that cause the most frustration. I managed to beat all the levels without turning on the 'easy mode' and it was a slog. My overall feeling of the game was sort of indifferent. While character development is good and keeps the story interesting, but sometimes it can be a bit off. Examining notes can reveal important plot points but characters don't acknowledge this, meaning the twists that occur aren't that exciting because you already knew it. The explanation to how the aliens get on the ship is bizarre. I didn't like the ending, I originally thought I got the bad ending, I can't find anywhere that mentions the ending but I assume now there only is 1 ending, which I guess is supposed to tie in to a potential sequel. I'd only reccommend the game if you like X-com, and only if you enjoy a really tough challenge

Outlast 2

My favorite game after the first installment. Finished it in a few days after purchasing.