Entry 8: Close to The Sun (XB1)

This game is essentially an immersive walking simulator(press some buttons and do some other things along the way) in the vein of a "Bioshock Lite"(look, theme of an isolated colony gone haywire). You play a female "hero" trying to find her sister aboard a super large scientific colony cruise ship, amidst some sort of disaster.

Pros

Nice areas to walk(or run) through, and some nice music & sounds in some areas.

A nice story(if a bit ripped off from Bioshock then altered).

Somewhat interesting characters(One being Nikola Tesla)

Some nice collectibles to find in some areas.

Cons-Nitpicks

Not much interaction(some buttons to press and a few minor puzzles, plus things to examine in some areas).

Some parts require one to run from danger quickly(and sometimes interact with buttons to open doors/etc while doing that).

Over a bit too soon(somewhat short).

*Semi-spoiler*

Ends with a hint of a sequel.....if it will ever be made

*end spoiler*

Overall I give it a 7.5/10...very good despite it's flaws, especially if one likes such walk/explore games.

(Full/main game list in Post 21)
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Entry 9: Alpha Prime(Steam/Windows-64 Bit)

This game is short but a nice little shooter....you play a maybe miner/maybe soldier trying to find an old flame's love amidst some disaster occurring in a space based mining facility. One can "hack" into a few cameras/weapons/doors here and there(via a scanner tool) or shoot their way through the various areas as they try to put together what is going on and survive.

Pros

Nice musical score and decent enough looking areas.

Some cheesy but fun cutscenes and 1 funny side character(met in one of the cutscenes).

Good setup/conclusion cutscenes.

Cons-nitpicks

Somewhat short(the first and last levels are very short, and there aren't many to begin with).

Not much to hack into with said hack tool.

Not much variety in stuff to examine in the various areas(some stuff is repeated/recycled, like posters on some walls).

*Semi-Spoiler*

As with Close to the Sun, this also ends on a cliffhanger/hints at a sequel, though the ending is very good.

*End spoiler*

Overall I give it a 6.5-7/10.....not bad for a quick bit of run and gun game play for a decent price.

(Full/main game list in Post 21)

Tomb Raider Anniversary

Didn'l like it much. Modern gaming brings "Press X to make all the work" sounds cool on paper but execution is not that great. Sometimes game have bad day and won't execute orders from players properly, due to bad camera position or else.
Last final level with climbing section was a nightmare.
Shoot buttons to spawn flying monsters that knock you down with every shot, and they keep you pinned unless you spam Jump button to get up faster.
But doing this on small platform often ends in Lara falling all the way down to the lava pool. And you can't see her tripped down by monsters, thanks to the camera so that helps too...
If not for checkpoint on every platform I would drop the game despite being close to the end.

People laugh at old TR tanky controls but they got something modern TRs lacks - precision. In old TRs most mistakes were made by player - me, in modern ones I felt like game was at fault way too many times.
Even Dark Souls didn't make me angry that much.

Now it's time for TR3, Last Revelation and be done with the series. Not gonna touch modern TRs after my experience with PS2/3 era trilogy...

Nice to see someone else actually liked it as well, when it's usually just panned by reviewers. I enjoyed it too. Sure, it's not the greatest platformer ever created, it's simplistic and easy, but I still thought it fun to play through. :)

The Night of the Rabbit, April 15 (GOG)-I think this was one of the better Daedalic adventure games. It seemed a bit longer than the typical adventure game which I thought was good. The first half of the game set up for a finish that didn't quite deliver but the overall experience was still good.

The first half of the game had some good puzzles and most of the world was open to you so there was a lot of exploring to do. The plot in the first half was cliched but serviceable and set up for a potentially good second half. Unfortunately the second half of the game felt much smaller and linear and the plot couldn't quite figure out what it wanted to do. A lot of the puzzles in the second half were pretty poor. Frequently you were limited to a single screen so it didn't take long to brute force the solution even if you couldn't figure it out right away. Also the spell idea seemed a bit half baked, that mechanic could have used some more work and better utilization.

Full List

The Surge (XB1X)

Deck 13's follow up game after Lords of the Fallen. It's a good take on the From Software style of games, with enough little differences to make it stand on its own, not the least of which is the change to Sci Fi. It improves in most ways over Lords of the Fallen- except one thing- I really liked how that game didn't respawn enemies when you checkpointed and banked XP at the safe points. Everything only respawned on death. It made the game feel different, but The Surge goes back to respawn upon using the save rooms, though they kept the XP banking.

The graphics engine is much improved, not just on the last Deck 13 game but also over From Soft games- which are notorious for poor frame timing even when they maintain consistent actual frame rate numbers. But the Surge ran flawlessly at 60fps. Of course that is helped, no doubt, by the narrow claustrophobic level design that never needs long draw distances. The level design was good though, with lots of short cuts to find and open and everything being layered over the top of everything else. They did a good job.

The combat was actually pretty decent in itself. The limb cutting mechanic worked well and tied to the equipment upgrading and crafting in a way I can't remember seeing in any other game. I played a fast moving lightly armoured rig, but with a slow powerful weapon. The game offers lots of weapons and armour to find...but I didn't really ever feel the need to use any of it. I basically just upgraded the weapon I got from the first boss and used that in upgraded form for the entire game and never felt the need to change.

I really enjoyed it, though it has to be said that I'm predisposed to like this type of game as I haven't played any that I haven't liked regardless of whether its From Software or something smaller like Ashen. The Surge is a solid entry, but did fail in one area though. It only had 5 bosses! Not only that, I didn't like any of them. They were all "gimmick" bosses...the type you see in God of War or DMC. Target the weak points, hack off a number of limbs, position the boss so he damages himself etc. You have to find the trick to each fight. It works okay for brawlers like God of War maybe, but I prefer my Dark Souls games to have good old fashion straight out fights, without tricks and multiple scripted phases- just get in there and out fight them fair and square. To be honest though, From Software game are the only games in the entire history of video gaming where I actually truly like the bosses. So I hope The Surge 2 doesn't repeat these types of boss fights. Still, looking forward to The Surge 2 the next time I'm in the mood for this type of game.

Paperbark

A short nature documentary about a wombat in the Australian bush, in the form of a pretty linear walking (or lolloping?) simulator with watercolour aesthetics, "uncover the landscape" mechanics reminiscent of Beyond Eyes, and some simple hidden object mini-game to give the players something to do along the way.

As a game, it's far from great. You just click around with the mouse on screen (and I supect originally you were meant to tap on the screen of your mobile device), in order to tell the little wombat where to go or to collect one of the many bugs hidden in the surroundings, and it's a bit slow, feels somewhat unresponsive at times (and occasionally slightly sluggish on my rig). The hidden object element seems a bit pointless - not just because linear, one-way street progression doesn't mix very well with the idea of missable collectibles, especially not in a slow game with no real replay value, but also because (thankfully) it doesn't really seem to matter how good or bad you are at it, unless you're an achievement hunter. I found no hint at actual in-game rewards for finding everything.

So if you can't appreciate the colorful art, the pleasant nature sounds, the nice music, and the cute animations, there isn't much left for you to enjoy. I had mixed feelings; I played through it because I was bored, it only takes short of one hour to do so, and I found the presentation sweet and adorable, but the game itself is rather meh, sadly, and not all that entertaining. I do concede though that it is the first game I've played where you take control of a wombat, and that wombat really is quite cute. ;)

Divine Divinity - My second playthrough as a warrior. It's painful how underrated this game is!

Space Quest IV - Doesn't hold up imho. Multiple dead ends, frustrating action sequences, and a cheesy plot. There were a few moments that made me genuinely laugh, but the humor is overall pretty dated.

Ruiner (XB1X)

Short, fast and violent twin stick shooter. I'm not very skilled at these types of shooter, but I sort of like them anyway as long as they stay short enough. It looks the part, ran perfectly and has great music that suits the Cyberpunk theme. I played the Xbox version because it was listed as leaving Game Pass this month, most likely to make way for some new Devolver games. I do also have the PC version from it was free on Epic. Doesn't matter where you get, but just make sure you play it, puppy.

Underrated by who?

My, 2020 is not a "productive" year for me so far, on the backlog front...

Just finished Borderlands 3: Love, Guns &Tentacles DLC. It was very fun. Yes, it's more of the same, but it's very well done, this time in a horror/Lovecraft style, and frankly speaking, that's all I expect from Borderlands!

So far in 2020: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2020/post29

Resident Evil: Revelations

Great atmosphere, cheesy plot, crazy monsters... what's not to like? The hardest puzzles were the ones that challenged my lack of spatial awareness. Some underwater parts really felt like playing that scene in Alien Resurrection (the 4th movie).
I want more! Tomorrow I'll start RE5.

They claim that the version in the Anthology is "remastered for Windows 7". You'd think the GOG one would be the same?
Not that I checked myself, I played it on XP (but had an Nvidia card) in 2007-2008 I think.
There's also that bit in the dev diary coming with the Anthology, saying that the initial release was a buggy mess and CDV didn't allow Larian to release patches because "CDV games don't have bugs!", so their rescue came in the form of the English version that was released a bit later, in which they could incorporate the patches.

After fantastic W3, I started from the beginning with The Witcher: Enhanced Edition which I never beat before, because I really don't like battle system. After some time I accustom to it, but found more thing which I don like here. Generally I would say, that first Witcher is not even average linear RPG with probably bad engine, where I had very often feeling, that I play rather walking simulator, than anything else. Found some bug, which could be solved by loading older save, but I realize it later in game so it lead to different than pleased in game decision. Time necessary to reach final boss was infinite for me. Why I have to kill somebody for the second time? On the other hand I must say, that graphics is still nice. The best is to see amazing evolution where it leads – looking forward to The Witcher 4!
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Not sure, I can only tell you, that I played gog version and with help of Larian forums I was able to finish whole game. But it needed some "adjustments"... Btw. be careful if you would play it, there is stat point bug present.

Apart from that I have following notes:
Council of Seven Scrying Room Crash
- in case of problem there SW renderer helps

Council of Seven Scrying Room Door
-Do you have a save before the teleporter pads stopped working?
Either the glitch with the teleproter pads also reset the world file for the council hall (and Verdistis), or a problem replacing the telpstates.000 file caused that.
- Try making a copy of a save folder before you tried the fix, and redo it, then check the council hall right away.
- If the doors are still closed, do you have a save after clearing the council hall, but before this problem started?
Try loading your latest save, make sure you don't have anything left directly on the ground in the council hall or Verdistis, clear the merchant guild, etc, if required and possible, then make a new save, exit, copy the world.x1 file from the earlier save (where the council hall was open) to that new save folder, then start the game and load the latest save.

I also had to you some fix from internet with "divinity.sdb", now I do not remember for what.