Rain of Reflections: Set Free

This was a nice surprise. I actually liked it well enough to play through it in two sittings only, within two days of starting it. Granted, I was aware that it's just the first episode in a series, and it took me no more than 4 hours to complete it, but I was expecting some average low budget indie game, not such a cinematic and atmospheric presentation with good storytelling, decent voiceovers and nice music. While setting and story weren't anything I hadn't seen before and gameplay was a mix of simple adventure game exploration, hacking mini games and easy turn-based tactics stealth sections, the presentation made it all worth it and fun to play. I also liked that the turn-based tactics section did not require me to hurt or kill anyone, and that instead of health/hitpoints it used a "motivation" system, although the low difficulty never really caused me to lose enough "motivation" for the characters to come close to giving up. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the game. Too bad that it looks like this series has been abandoned. Two more chapters were announced, and in-game it even looks like they might have had plans for 9 (!) episodes, but they clearly bit off more than they could chew, which is a shame. Still, I think Chapter One was well worth playing on its own, even if it's just more of a prelude.

Resistance Fall of Man, Feb 27 (PS3)-It felt like a generic average shooter. On occasion I'd find myself enjoying a particular level, usually the parts with fellow soldiers but mostly it's rather forgettable. I did genuinely like most of the vehicle levels though. The game also was a little on the easy side. I died several times in the first area before you get the regen ability and then didn't die again for over half the game. It also felt like parts of the game were supposed to be horror but it fell a little flat. It also felt like there should have been more secrets. There were some documents you could find but there would often be what seemed like hidden areas with nothing in them.

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The series doesn't really pick up as an action title until part 2, which is a pretty intense little ride. The first game is your average launch fare, more of a showcase for the system than a game in its own right.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (XSX Game Pass)

I went into this having never read any of the comics or watched any of the movies, so totally blind. I've come away pleasantly surprised. First of all this is a very cinematic presentation, so make sure that is what you feel like. It's also completely linear. But it was a an awesome ride. Stunning graphics, it ran well, and has great voice acting. Plus one of the best licensed soundtracks since Mafia 3. Took me back to the 80's, feeling like I needed to get ready to go to school tomorrow. This is where this type of cinematic experience can all come together and be fun- flying your ship through asteroids to Motley Crue or battling whilst listening to Joan Jett - I thought she was so hot when I was 13. If you went through your teens in the 80's then this game has value just for the memories triggered by the music.

The game play aspects are just serviceable, not ground breaking. This is a game that's really for the experience and i have to say I really like crew that make up the Guardians team- it seems to be something of an origins story. A team of misfits is just so much more fun than stuffy old super heroes. Unfortunately the game did not sell all that well, and all of those licenses must have cost Square Enix a mega shit ton of money...so there may never be a sequel. Maybe a good idea to play or buy this within 5 years before all the music licenses expire.

I forgot to mention that the AI was really bad sometimes. I could often snipe enemies from afar and they'd just sit there until they died. And this was with the assault rifle before I even got the sniper rifle. It did allow me to thin the herd a bit which probably was part of the reason I found the game rather easy. It also certainly contributed to my frequent lack of ammo and need to backtrack.

LA Noire, Mar 11 (PS3)-I had been looking forward to playing this for a long time and I had a lot of fun with it but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The general game play of traveling to different crime scenes and places of interest, searching for clues, and then interrogating witnesses and suspects was fun. I liked how the later cases tied together even if none of the characters could figure it out. The plot was pretty good (I guess that ties into the cases a bit) although I didn't care for the ending both mechanics-wise and plot-wise. With few exceptions (police dispatcher) the voice acting was great and it was just a lot of fun driving around 1940s LA.

But man was there a lot of driving. Far too much driving and often with the next objective on the other side of the map. This could have been alleviated with lots of side Quest type activities and there were some with a bunch of street crimes to resolve. Those street crimes were fun but got very repetitive after 5 or 6 and they frequently had you driving in the opposite direction of your main objective. And despite all the traffic and people walking around with only such a narrow slice of the world populated with Content it all felt very empty. Also, those silly drivers didn't respond to my sirens and the pedestrians would occasionally jump in front of my car.

I didn't really like how the game handled failure. I felt like the story was going to progress with or without me and the best I could do was try to keep up. This was disappointing because at the very beginning if you failed the interview you started it over until you got it right. I'm not sure if this method would have been best, but I like some comments from your partner saying let's take a other look at the crime scene or remember that certain piece of evidence. Or if the developers really wanted players to be able to fail it should have had some impact in the game or story. Here I feel like all I got were a couple of throwaway lines from the chief and maybe locked out of additional info from POIs.

Lastly, the combat was really lacking. I think it was necessary to have some shooting in this game and maybe this was the best way to include it while still minimizing its importance. So if it has to be included but is a subpar part of the game it's baffling why the endgame was almost entirely combat. It doesn't seem like a great idea to end your game with an extended portion of one of your worst features.

All that said I still had quite a bit of fun with it and I wouldn't mind if there was a sequel or spiritual successor in the future.

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The Birthday (NWN 2)

Review here

FAR: Changing Tides (XSX Game Pass)

This game reminded me a bit of the first Syberia game but with all of the dialogue taken out and where you work out the story for yourself. You have to keep a sea going vessel operational and solve simple puzzles to remove blockages to your progress. The game gives you no instructions how to do anything, you just work out how to operate your vessel and upgrade it yourself. It feels like your really learning to operate the vehicle instead of just doing what the tool tips tell you to do like in most games.

It's a sequel to FAR: Lone Sails, which I haven't played. I'm going to get and play it at some point though, as I enjoyed this one. It's about 6 hours long.

Control. I haven't played Quantum Break but of Remedy's games that I have played, I definitely liked this more than Alan Wake and it compares pretty favorably with the Max Payne games. I really liked the paranormal, SCP-influenced theme and they do a pretty good job of making what is essentially a giant office building look like an interesting and multi-faceted place to set a game.

The game at its best gives a great sense of total chaos happening while you're fighting. I remember someone once saying that when you fire a gun indoors, it completely changes the environment and that's very much true of this game. Walls crack and shatter, stationery goes flying everywhere, glass breaks, etc., and that's before your character starts going all Dark Phoenix later on and is flinging large objects around while levitating everywhere while continuing to shoot everyone.

However, I do think the game goes a bit overboard with the combat and especially later in the game I found myself getting bored while stuck in these dragged out encounters with enemies that respawned yet again. Especially when I was trying to explore a bit and maybe tie up some of the side missions I had accumulated. It's similar to the feeling in an RPG when you're trying to locate something very specific but you keep getting hit with random encounters. It makes the game feel padded. Ultimately, I skipped most of the side missions and just went on to finish the game. At least it's not one of those where you get a crappy ending for not doing 100 percent. I guess a lot of the extra content is there if you REALLY enjoyed the game and weren't getting weary of the fighting like I was.

I also hated the motel puzzles. Just annoying busywork after the first one. I haven't made up my mind if they're worse than the "blood trail" levels in Max Payne, but they're pretty lame.

Harp and Chrysanthemum (NWN 2)

Same author as The Birthday which I finished recently. This module is even better. Review here

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri [Alien Crossfire] (Cybernetic Consciousness, Transcendence) - 4/5

I finally did it. I did the thing! I won a game of Alpha Centauri (well, technically Alien Crossfire) after years and years and years of trying. I never got far before, but I managed to muddle my way through this time.

Despite so much of the interface feeling cumbersome and user unfriendly, I'd absolutely say this is something worth persevering with. The foreboding atmosphere and excellent writing really elevate this to a 'must play' if you're a fan of 4X games.

What ending did you get? I only finished the game once, and it ended with humanity merging with the planet somehow into some sort of collective consciousness? That's an introvert's nightmare! Kind of a sucky ending after so many tens of hours of empire building :P

I fail to see how the planet eating you is a victory condition xP If I ever get round to it again I'll have to aim for an economic / diplomatic victory then.
Would've been great if there were a defeat-the-planet victory condition as well :P

Hexcells
Hexcells Plus
Hexcells Infinite
Crosscells
Squarecells

This bundle is a bit of a mishmash -


The bad:
The first Hexcells is too easy. Completed 100% in under 2 hours and none really even required careful contemplation to the point of being a "puzzle." Might be good for kids?

The meh:
Crosscells is mostly fun but a few puzzles just seem annoying - about 5 of the maps have too many variables to the point where it's just trial and error until you stumble into it unless I'm missing a strategy.
Hexcells Infinite - sounds good in theory buy the few community puzzles I tried were pretty lame and the developer built maps are better than the first Hexcells, but below Plus.

The good:
Hexcells Plus
Squarecells