Metro 2033 Redux is linear FPS... Despite it, I was interested what will come next, Russian architecture and culture was great, but I did not understand dreams with black monsters... (I did not read a book). When game ended with „bad“ ending I have no idea why and whether it is good or bad. It mean, that although game was interesting to play, game story itself is back-grounded so much, that eventually it lost somewhere.

"Bad Ending" is canon for the set-up for how Metro: Last Light starts - so you're all set w/ that ending.

The game - and well, this series, for that matter - is believed to have a hidden good/bad moral system based on which you do in the game, which it does NOT tell you about.

More on that over here - https://metrovideogame.fandom.com/wiki/Moral_Points

You're learn WAY more about the Dark Ones in Metro: Last Light.

Now imagine that that's exactly how other cultures and political systems are usually depicted and languages butchered in American and British cinema, lol.

All fair points. I guess I made it sound worse than I actually meant it. It's true that all in all the voice-acting is pretty good.

Far Cry 3 Classic (XB1X)

The Classic version is simply a console port of the original PC version for current generation consoles. It was a bonus game that comes with the season pass of Far Cry 5. It looks and runs fine and is still as fun as the original was on 360. The gun play and stealth are quite good, especially taking the enemy bases. The story missions are mixed, some are good but some are annoying and use forced "stealth or fail" for no logical reason, and all the major "boss" battles just end in QTE's. It's pretty good, but I liked FC4 better since getting around is a lot less tedious due to being able to fly everywhere using the Autogyro.

Considering, that to gain moral point you must play guitar in free cities where is basically nothing, so I stopped examining them since second one... it was impossible to me gain positive karma.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

I hate to admit it, but even though The New Order is the bolder, more ambitious and more creative game, I think I liked this one a little better. It's not as long, the scope is smaller, the setting consistent and a throwback to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and it's neatly structured in 8 chapters aka levels (or 7 levels, one of them was more like a very short interlude). I think it also helped that I knew this beforehand and could plan my playthrough around it. I also found it easier to unlock almost all of the perks during my playthrough this time (they function like achievements, e.g. do 20 stealth takedowns, kill 50 nazis using the shotgun, overload health to 200 etc.), because they were fewer, so I could better concentrate on specific ones, and there was less scripting, more (but easier) opponents in the last quarter, and I also feel like there were more areas that could serve as an open playground, but since I took a break in the midst of TNO, I might remember that falsely. Also, chapters seemed shorter and therefor more attractive to replay IMO, if one wishes to do that. All in all, it felt a little more game-y, which made unlocking the perks feel a little less inappropriate and out of place.

Since TOB is a prequel to the story of TNO and still set in WW2, there is no Laserkraftwerk yet, just your regular ol' fire weapons (including a pretty powerful explosive pistol though). And the setting is more conventional as well, very similar to RTCW. The castle and the small towns with the half-timbered houses look pretty nice and atmospheric, but this time they didn't even try to connect all the fictional nonesense to anything remotely realistic or historically accurate. They borrowed the name of the city Paderborn to make a small mountain village out of it, possibly because they just liked the sound of that name, and they invented a "Wulfburg" even though there is an actual Wolfsburg (very far from Paderborn though and nowhere near high mountains either). They also put in a few anachronistic easter eggs like a Doom cacodemon chewing toy for dogs. But all of that just makes the game more hilarious, less serious (despite some attempts to strike serious tones again, now and then, but less so than in TNO). I also enjoyed all the silly posters again ("Wurstfest").

I didn't really like the final boss fight; in the end I won it by cheesing it, but playing by the rules would just have been too tedious and boring. But then again, I'm notoriously allergic to boss battles in general. A minor complaint I have is that listening to recordings was even more tedious in TOB, because instead of staring at the menu, I now had to stare at a tape recorder directly in the level, so I couldn't even postpone listening to the recordings, and they were rather lengthy and longwinded. One of them could not even be repeated. But like I said, it's a very minor complaint, as I think there were only 2 or 3 in the whole game, and all of them optional of course, and they did not contain any big revelations either.

*MINOR SPOILER* What I did not mention before is that both games include a binary choice on which character to save and the games then go along with your choice, which might be somewhat ambitious for a FPS, but in TOB the choice is closer to the end and has less of an impact, therefor it's also less of a hassle to just repeat the according section and see what changes. In my book that's a good thing though, as I don't have any interest in complete replays. */SPOILER*

Anyway, it was another entertaining (modern) FPS.

Testor Dungeon RPG (2020) (Linux)

It's actually kind of online old-school crpg made by Testor0. I liked its concept, mechanics, visuals (ascii!). I also like how the main quest is designed. It reminded me good old games as Ultima or polish MUD-like Otchłań. Really nice puzzle, max 2h to be completed. The maze is not so big and exploring is fun, so once you start the game, it's hard to resist to complete it. As far as I know you can still ask Testor0 for login and password and try yourself – so do not hesitate, if you dare ;) The game is OS-agnostic; you can probably play on your toaster, if it's able to establish telnet connection and display 80x24 terminal window :)

List of all games completed in 2020.

Bioshock 2 Remastered, Oct 14 (GOG)-A lot of fun just like the first one. Plus a couple of good DLCs to go with it. My only gripe is that I never felt like a big daddy, I was constantly taking far too much damage for that. So it didn't feel any different than the original. But the Adam gathering mechanic was fun. Although once again I ended the game with far more Adam than I had a use for. Which completely defeated the moral dilemma of the little sisters. But still quite a lot of fun.

Full List

Just finished VVVVVV. I bought it more than 4 years ago, but for some reason I just tried it a little and even though I liked it I was probably distracted by something else. Last night I was watching a YT video about indie games and it was also featuring VVVVVV. I said to myself it was time to go back to it. It's short, it provides a challenge, still being fair and player-friendly. I enjoyed Celeste last year, I have become quite fond of this kind of precision platformers that while winking at the past offer a modern game design. The story was entertaining enough for its shortness. Characters don't have any depht but they are C64 cute. The colourful graphics and uplifting music can make you smile even when you are failing dozens of times in the same room, there's plenty of humour in the rooms names themselves.

I also gave a shot at WURROOM and a shot was all it took. It's a 10 minute bizarre animation short. Your pointer hand (or why not...something else, why do pointers have to be hands) is actually part of the weird world it interacts with. There are not real puzzles, just click to interact and see what happens. Whan you can't see the hotspot right click to revieal it. Recommened if you like the strange psychedelic clay animations. Same studio is working on a bigger thing called Ultra Strangeness that is defined as an "exploration adventure / puzzle game with simplified craft system". Let's see when it's released!

Deus Ex. This was my second full run through the game. I think when I first played it years ago, I took more of a combat angle, but this time around I felt like seeing if I could do a stealth/hacker run. I mostly succeeded, although I did start getting impatient toward the end and started chopping down guys with the laser sword when I felt it would be more convenient than having to account for so many guards on patrol. I definitely didn't do a lot of shooting, though.

All in all, it holds up really well. You always feel like there are multiple options available, and it rewards observation and patience. Things it doesn't do so well are mostly things that weren't especially great even when it was new. I've never found it a very graphically appealing game (unless your favorite color is GRAY, in which case you might feel some constant euphoria while playing it), the animations are a bit goofy, and the AI could be better. Overall, though, it's such a well-designed game all the way through.

Brütal Legend (XB1X Game Pass)

This starts out awesome. Possibly one of the most stylish games ever made, with it's classic metal vibe complete with a incredible cast of voice actors (Lita Ford, Ozzy etc) and likenesses and licensed music. Initially I thought it was going to be mainly a brawler like Darksiders as the core game play. Unfortunately the game play went downhill as things progressed. The main game play element went from being a brawler to an RTS...and I'm not the worlds biggest fan of RTS games. I really did not like the RTS main quests and dreaded every time the game used them. The other aspects of the game were better, but nothing ever outstanding. The driving and exploration, side quests and upgrades were just serviceable. But it's worth playing still, not just for the already mentioned style but also the story and writing is decent enough.

I also have a feeling that after Psychonauts 2 releases, Double Fines next game could well be Brütal Legend 2. With the help of Microsoft $ to buy more licensed music, it's definitely more feasible to see a sequel than with Double Fine working by themselves.

Your disappointment is interesting. I loved it precicely because of its light RTS elements combined to an action game. I thought it was an original formula. What I liked less were the mini games that were "optional" but really needed to upgrade your vehicle. It felt like a chore going around to complete all of them, if they were less of the same it could have been better but I found them repetitive. I remember going nuts for 2 days to finish the last big battle because I kept missing the last car launch with the platform. I think I have replayed that battle dozens of times. Now I would just say give me insta-saves, better checkpoints or goodbye, stay on a console...

I have finished the little free game Don't look back by the same dev of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon. It's like a linear VVVVVV with a darker tone, brown and red colors and an

[spoiler]



Orpheo and Euridice



[/spoiler]

reference.
You can play it here.

Fractured Minds (XB1X Game Pass)

A 30 minute long simple puzzle game that was a young game designer winner a few years back. It explores themes of mental illness. Initially the game was threatening to cause me mental issues with there being no option to invert the vertical axis. Then I remembered that Xbox lets you button map and invert all axis at the system level. Once that was taken care of it was quite enjoyable. It's only 30 minutes long, but it's only $1.99 as well, or Game Pass it. Also it's the easiest 1000 game score you will ever come across, which is great this month since all gamer score adds to MS rewards...which means even more free game pass!