Kona 2 Brume, Aug 21 (Xbox Game Pass)-This was a solid survival horror lite experience. Think Resident Evil without the zombies. It relies more on atmosphere than scares. Unfortunately the survival aspect is severely lacking as resources abound. Its got a lot less combat than RE and a lot more puzzles, although the puzzles aren't any more difficult. The laboratory with the battery puzzle was a highlight. The mansion wasn't bad and evoked RE but ultimately was too linear and had too many doors that never unlocked. The open wilderness was a bit lackluster but the blinding snow was a nice touch. The story had some meat on it but wasn't anything to revolutionary. I never played the first game so I don't know how it compares but this stands on its own pretty well. The game was fun but ultimately a little too easy since you could mostly avoid combat and the resources were so plentiful.

I forgot to mention the game stutters quite a bit and loading screen are long and appear to freeze but then don't. Every time you check inventory, look at the map, read the journal, come in and out of a menu, or even open and walk thru a door the game would stutter and lag. It was very annoying but it never actually crashed.

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Yup, it might be the same.

However I always tried to interpret the problem is not on my side (lack of IQ ;), but I just love a brilliant simplicity
of some puzzle games and then they get more and more complicated and at some point it's just not so brilliant anymore. It's like PCs winning in chess - PCs are better just because of CPU capacity, nothing more. These complicated puzzle solutions may be still in my reach, but they don't trigger the "eureka!" feeling like the simpler ones.

Samsara Room (2020) (Linux/Proton)

I like Rusty Lake games. They're crazy, sure, but these abstract puzzles are pure pleasure, if you like challenges like this one. Nicely designed progress and overall simplicity limit the options and helps you focus on puzzles and not walking from place to place with no idea of "what to do now". The game is free and it's worth its time.

Works great under Proton under Linux. I've used Heroic Games Launcher.

List of all games completed in 2024.

Thanks for the insight!
Loved the first Kona, I lost hope to ever see a sequel and then this appeared!
I'll totally pick it up later on, glad to see you mention some issues.

I finished Legends of Aranna, the expansion of Dungeon Siege. I admit I liked it more than the base game! Very interesting story.

If my memory doesn't trick me -it has been quite a few years after all- in the first Kona I rarely had to use bulllets, I had a good amount of those left not much because they weren't scarce but because I avoided shooting.
Batteries burned like hay though!

Some months ago I replayed the original Starcraft campaign. Back in the day I used to play RTS games with lots of savescumming because I didn't know better. This time I made a restriction to play it ironman-style (no reloading to rollback the mission and recover from mistakes), and honestly had a lot of fun with it.

But all of this was to prepare myself for the Enslavers campaign, the extra campaign hidden in the custom maps menu. I remember playing it as a kid and even with savescumming I could not progress. My brother made it to the final mission but couldn't finish it, mainly because of the respawning Ultralisk that appears there and constantly harasses you. It was a life goal to me to beat the whole campaign at some point, with ironman rules.

Well I'm happy to say that I just managed that. Final mission was tough but I did it. Mass battlecruisers for the win.

Next goal is to beat another old favorite of mine: the expansion campaign of Warcraft 2. This is another one I couldn't beat as a kid, but now I'm confident I can do it. Ironman rules of course.

Pathologic 2 (Steam)

I actually tried to play this about 4 years ago when it was on Game Pass. I got halfway and was really enjoying it, but the game bugged and some important characters (that weren't dead) just disappeared and I couldn't progress some quests. Maybe I still could have got an ending, but the uncertainty caused me to quit it. Finally, I had to play it again and the recent sale price convinced me to pick it up and restart.

This time, everything worked fine. Now, I value gameplay far more than story and narrative in gaming. Good gameplay forms a kind of narrative all by itself in a way. That doesn't mean that, occasionally, something primarily narrative focused doesn't join my favorite games list. This is one of those games. The opening sequence of the Harusplex journey could be one of the most atmospheric parts of any video game I've played- the music, the world and characters immediately draw you in. Even before you really begin playing. You have to read a lot, but it is worth it. The characters are all memorable, and tragic- not evil, just trying to do the best they can in difficult circumstances.

Gameplay serves its purpose. At its heart it is a survival game. Your absolute main priority is to not die. It has hunger, fatigue, health and immunity bars- just like any survival game. I've never been able to really get into those games when there is nothing much to do other than just survive. In this game there is a lot to do, and not enough time to do everything. So, you have to prioritize. Like the NPC's in the game, all you have to do is the best that you can, using your own judgment. In the end, the game is not as difficult as it seems at first. Just survive (which isn't hard once you understand the unique economy) and follow what you consider to be the main, or most important, quests. Do that and you will reach an ending that suits you.

Unique game. One of the greats. I'm tempted to have another try at the HD version of the original, just to see things from the point of view of the Batchelor and Changeling. But, Pathologic 2 just plays so much better- either way I hope they are still working on the sequels.

Alien Isolation (GOG)

Was one of the last games I bought on Steam before I left. I had been experimenting with Steam emulation to avoid needing to use the client, I had got 2/3rd of the way through when something went wrong and I lost my save games.

Finally got around to playing and completing it on GOG

Environments, controls, scripting all have stood the test of time, its only the human NPC's that look a little dated now.

Beautifully crafted with care for the source material and absolutely terrifying at parts.

Ultima. I just had an itch to replay this, although this time I played the Apple II version (not the original from California Pacific, but the reissue published by Origin). I did play a bit of Akalabeth first, but I've never been able to get into it. Even I have my limits in tolerance for very early RPGs and Akalabeth always feels like more of a prototype than a full game to me, especially since Ultima replicates the "go to dungeon, slay a particular monster to solve quests" routine.

I had trouble remembering how the game worked and nearly got killed early on, but things started coming back after I made it out of a dungeon and got a huge HP boost and was able to buy enough food to avoid the threat of starving. I quickly bought a ranged weapon and better armor, got a horse, then grinded until I got the top quality weapons and armor, bought the landspeeder, and then started shuttling among all the castles and signpost locations to boost my stats (easily the dullest part of the game). Once I got leveled enough to defeat the tougher monsters in the dungeons, I found the time machine and then bought the space shuttle and headed up to shoot the TIE fighters. I wasn't sure I had leveled my stats high enough to defeat Mondain, but apparently I had because I defeated him pretty easily. It's still a fairly simple game, but it can be fun for a couple of nights when you want to be reminded of how the series started (not counting Akalabeth).

Charlie Murder (Steam)

Best side scrolling beat-em-up ever made in my opinion. Made by Ska Studios in between the excellent Dishwasher games and the more recent Salt and Sanctuary/Sacrifice games. Here you play as one of the members of the Punk Rock band Charlie Murder and have to fight through the minions of the Metal band Gore Quaffer. Just like the Dishwasher games, the music is a big part of the experience- this time Punk Rock as expected.

This game plays like Streets of Rage on steroids, with the usual left to right progression and you can move in and out of the screen- different to the Dishwasher games which are purely side scrolling with a lot of vertical moves. The character progression is excellent, as is the art and music. There are no difficulty levels, you can replay the game on Chaos difficulty after finishing normal mode.

Very highly recommended. Formally Xbox 360 exclusive, it's good that they brought it to PC- though Steam only.

Might and Magic 6

Alien devil bats land on your planet right in your home town, and it's your job to kick butt and save the day(because apparently everyone else is busy being a literal NPC)! Collect and buy new gear, learn and improve your skills, and grind through a few dungeons until you get strong enough to mow everything down with magic and more powerful weaponry.

Pros

Nice Intro and soundtrack
Some fun dungeons here and there
Decent graphics
Fun end game

Cons

A few 'grindy' dungeons here and there
Travelling is a pain until you get the fly/teleport spells


Misc
EndGame goes pew pew pew!


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Overall Score: 7/10

A decent entry in the Might and Magic series.
Go forth and save enroth if you have the time.

Battletoads (2020), Aug 28 (Xbox Game Pass)-I liked this more than I was expecting. It's got a silly, self-referential plot but its fun. But it is so difficult. It's a mix of beat 'em up, shmup, platformer, and racer with a weird assortment of Warioware style mini-games thrown in. And all of them are tough. The game is pretty generous with checkpoints and restarts but even then some of the last levels just felt impossible. Towards the end the difficulty was far outweighing the fun and I just wanted it to be over. But in the early to mid game when its challenging but doesn't yet feel impossible its a pretty good game.

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You mean there are better ones, in that series I mean?
Yeah, it is rather weird at the end, spend all that time with your typical medieval fantasy stuff, then suddenly blasters and all your current weapon skills go out the window.
And a lot of it is really old school. Quite certainly wouldn't appreciate it too much if I'd play it today, and wonder if I'd even play it at all.
But don't see any others from the series challenging it either. Except maybe World of Xeen, which I haven't played, so just going on hearsay, but that's even more old school.