Thasis, pretty enough, but hollow like a politicians promise.
Random dice throws to solve problems, sounds fun, problem is that's it...not much else goes on.
Wasn't awful just wasn't great either, bought on sale, so didn't pay the full price.
Glad i didn't short game with a dismal ending.
Seems more games companies put more effort into their own logo than the game ending or start in some cases.
Meh out of 10.

Battlevoid Harbenger
Nice graphics, pretty good music, everythings clear...wonderful start.
Turn Based, entery level stuff, nothing complex.
Not much to say i brought it as it's a simple pick up and play game, and it is.
Worth the money for what the game offers.
Only negative is it's speed i would of liked one more speed up setting.
Carn't say if i'd return to it tho, only time will tell, maybe i will much later or if it get more content.

<span class="bold">Hotline Miami</span>

DaCostaBR's Gaming Symposium encouraged me to play this one once and for all, and I thank him/her for it.

It's a 4 year old game, so I guess everybody knows what's it all about: it's an unforgiving top-down ultra-violent action game set in 1989 Miami. You keep receiving messages on your answering machine and going wherever you're told to kill everybody there. All enemies go down with a single hit... but so do you, so prepare to die time and again until you figure out how to approach each level (in that regard it feels almost like a puzzle game). The game encourages recklessness and violence with its rating system at the end of each level, but I never got anything better than a B-. :\

The story (or lack thereof) is also quite interesting, but talking about it would be quite spoilery. So if you have already completed this game (or don't mind spoilers) I'd encourage you to take part in the symposium and talk about it in detail.


My list of finished games in 2016

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the fathers
One of the best point and click adventures I know about. Great story and Hollywood caliber voice acting, great characters and villains, mostly good puzzle design and great presentation. The graphics were good for its time but the comic book like cutscenes still look good even now. The music is also really good and adds a lot to the game's ambiance. The deaths are never cheap, you are always aware when you are in danger and should save.
If there are a few things that I didn't like very much it would have to be the occasionally annoying narrator and a few quite obvious plotholes, which is why I don't agree with the popular opinion that Jane Jensen is a master storyteller (The sequel has a lot more of those problems I'm afraid)
9/10

PC:
+Touhou 15 - Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom (Reisen Udongein Inaba, PointDevice Mode Normal)

I defeated the hardest game in the Touhou Project.

Other games

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the fathers - 20th anniversary edition
I greatly preferred the original version, it had its share of problems but the remake seems to keep them while adding a few new ones.
The original allowed you to accelerate the animation speed, but the remake doesn't and thus everything feels slower and more cumbersome.
I found several glitches ranging from unskippable pieces of dialog to Gabriel's head spinning around after a cutscene, or Gabriel walking through solid matter.
The voice acting isn't bad per say, but it can't measure up to the original ensemble of stars like Tim Curry, Mark Hamill or Michael Dorn.
They added scenes, altered a few puzzles and changed several areas and item locations as well as restricted the access to several locations based on the date. I didn't dislike those changes, even though most of them felt rather superficial and unneeded. All of the added and changed puzzles were about as easy as one would expect from a "modern" point and click adventure.
All in all, not a bad remake, but I preferred the original because of it's less linear approach, better voice acting and darker atmosphere.
7,5/10

I don't care about specifically her, I wanted the other character to become a god, no strings attached. The game not letting me do it is gross injustice and essentially shitting on transhumanism: "only gross basement dwellers want to be awesome, a white picket fence beats godhood any day of the week".

Oh and there's next to nothing about the game's most fascinating character (by far). At least I was able to keep him alive.

SPOILERS AHEAD




I didn't want anyone to become a God as such, rather provide rapid development. I mean, they're already dead, aren't they?

Yeah, they really should've included more of the backstory, lab segments really weren't nearly enough.

Tyranny

It took me 20 hours and 45 minutes of wonderfully wasted time to complete it, and it was great :D
This was the first time I completed a game like this, of the inifinity engine-ish games. Owned many, BG, IWD, POE, etc... but it was the only one that I absolutly loved the story and went straight through. Please make more Obsidion :P

After seeing the ending I think I'll have to replay it a few more times seeing all the options and a few companions I didn't even get to. I only had one glitch, which was an uncompleteable side quest

edit:
And cool there is an online character profile too



There might be slight spoilers in the story moments portion

here's mine if you're curious.

It shows character kills and story moments in the second tab.

Portal (Puzzle-platformer)

This is a title that most gamers have played, and if not played, have at least heard of. If -- like me -- you are late to the party and have yet to play the game, this review is for you... and hey, there's CAKE!

There are tabs for the various options:

- Keyboard, where you can re-map keys
- Mouse, where you can enable the controller
- Audio, with separate sliders for Game & Music. Subtitles are NOT the default. I highly suggest turning them on, as the mechanical voice is hard to understand.
- Video, where you can choose Full Screen vs. Windowed, Aspect Ratio, Brightness, Advanced, and Resolution (up to 1920x1080)

I was happy to find that the game is mostly controller-compatible... The crouch function doesn't seem to be mapped, so if you're going to use a gamepad, use the Ctrl button on your keyboard to crouch ;)

The concept is simple enough. You (will) have two guns, one that produces a blue portal, and one that gives you an orange portal. In one, out the other. Solve puzzles and move on to the next area. Easy right?

Well... Yes and no. The portals themselves aren't difficult to figure out, but you have to master the physics involved to truly progress in the game. I had a hell of a time grasping the this point because I was so disoriented when I was falling. Here's a hint: You need to gain some momentum if you want to make some distance when you exit the second portal, and oft times that means falling -- not just jumping -- through a portal.

There is some platforming involved, and a variety of obstacles (of course, what kind of game would this be if there weren't obstacles?) in your way, both benign and deadly, and through it all is your ever-present narrator-guide. I don't recommend muting her, as you'll miss out on both the ambience and a huge part of the story if you do (subtitles alone just aren't the same~).

But.. what story? O_o The game is tagged story-rich, so I was surprised to find that there wasn't much of a story at all! Sure it was interesting, but story-rich? But then... finally... It all changed. Sure it was something I was expecting, but things didn't pan out exactly how I had anticipated, either.

You will have to get through 11 chapters before approaching the end of the game, and as you complete each chapter, the Developer Commentary becomes available (accessible via the main menu.) Whilst you're in commentary mode, you can't be damaged, but you also won't gain achievements.

Speaking of achievements, there are 15 to be had, and only 1/3 of them can be gained by playing through the game. There are Advanced Chambers and Challenges available via the Bonus Maps section which is where you'll earn the bulk of your achievements.

It's easy to see the influences that this game has had on modern gaming, especially games like The Talos Principle. Portal is on the short side, but well worth playing if you enjoy puzzle-adventures, especially if you plan on playing Portal 2.

Expeditions: Conquistador

It was a good game even if travelling back and forth to gather ressources and explore the land got a little repetitive in the end.

Turn-based battles were great. Wouldn't have needed such a large party though, because I fought most of the battles with the same six people (2 soldiers, 1 scout, 1 doctor, 1 hunter, 1 trapper) and won most of them without any losses (on medium difficulty).

Story was interesting too and I like that there were many moral choices to be made. In the end I wasn't completely content with my decisions. I fought the Aztecs and after victory betrayed my allies and murdered their leader too. That lead to the death of one of my favourite characters. And in the end the Spanish king still was not impressed with me even if I brought the whole region under his control.

If I would do another playthrough, I would probably change some of mydecisions and try to establish a trading relationsship instead.

Complete list of finished games in 2016

<span class="bold">Lieve Oma</span>

Ultra-short game (completable in less than 30 minutes) that was free on itch.io at the same time as Gone Home. It could be described as a third-person walking simulator as all you do is walk in the forest and find the occasional mushroom.

There's some sort of story to it, though: you are a little girl who is struggling with some issues and your granny (as I understand it, the game's title is Dutch for "dear grandma") has taken you mushroom-hunting in the forest. Even though not many details are revealed, it somehow managed to evoke memories of my childhood. Probably by accident, as the music is uncannily similar to Debussy's Arabesque No.1, and a version of that piece by Isao Tomita was the intro theme of a TV program I used to watch when I was a little kid. That music is hard-wired into my brain as a link to my infancy, so I felt quite emotional while playing this game.

Definitely recommended as a free game. At its current price... I don't know. Especially considering it probably won't work as well for you as it did for me, thanks to the Proustian musical connection.


My list of finished games in 2016

Puzzle Agent

A nice casual game. It's not really a point and click adventure, but a number of small puzzles that you have to solve to get on with the story. Puzzles are not really hard, in most cases I solved them on my first try (and if I didn't, it was because I misunderstood the instructions).

The story is great. There are lots of quirky characters, a good dose of humor, a supernatural mystery in the woods and even if the whole game is cartoony, it has a strong "Twin Peaks" vibe (which I really like).

Game is short though and there is an open end. Hope that everything gets revealed in the sequel.

Complete list of finished games in 2016

Gabriel Knight 2: The beast within
For the most part, this game was ok. It has got all the problems almost all fmv games had, e.g. cheesy acting, low quality visuals and simplified gameplay. Not much I could say about it.
I liked Grace's story, but her puzzles were not good at all. (like the chapter 4 museum tours where you have to look, listen to and read EVERYTHING, otherwise the chapter won't end. )
Gabriel's story was formulaic and very predictable, to the point where I correctly guessed the role of most characters on my first time playing it. And that was in chapter one.
All in all, a decent fmv game for its time. A far cry from Sins of the fathers, but decent.
7,5/10

And then there's the sixth chapter.
Oh ... my ... God... what happened with this chapter?
It feels like they rewrote the entire theater segment at the last moment. No! I take it back. It feels like they got a hobo off the street, payed him with cheap wine and let him rewrite the segment at the last moment.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, works here.
Characters who should be present are nowhere to be seen.
Character who should not be present are there.
Intelligent no-nonsense characters appear surprisingly stupid and make only bad decisions.
There are so many plotholes, so many, many plotholes.
The entire plan with the theater makes no sense. (I know what they are trying to achieve, but it's the dumbest and most convoluted way they could had done it.)
And that is not all what is wrong with the last chapter. Nothing makes sense.
Oh my God, what happened?

Good review of it. I really like the game, but you're right. That ending maze puzzle in the theater, which is timed, is the bane of my existence and I needed a walkthrough. And timing the jump...-_- Also (spoiler) but do you think Ludwig's curse was lifted? Originally he was in the planning for the opera, but the opera kind of went awry and it was Gabriel himself who killed Van Glower.

Sorry, those always bothered me.

CastleStorm + DLC

On the one hand, I really enjoyed this game. Rushed out to spend $2.38 on both DLC, even, and played through all 4 campaigns in just a few days and was enjoying myself at least for most of it.

On the other, there are a few minor issues/inconsistencies:
-Difficult (even on hard) varies quite a bit
-A few encounters/levels are annoying
-The camera is sometimes buggy. Combine the mountain levels with a camera that seems really hard to control, and it's unclear why some shots arc over the mountain successfully and a lot crash into it.
-The gap between where you finish the campaign and all the levels you'd have to replay, and all the gold you'd need to increase skills across 4 different factions is a lot of grinding.


Also, for those who care Multi-player is apparently broken.

Still, if you can get this in a bundle/deep sale, it's 8-15 hours (depending on how you play it) of mostly entertaining game. The artwork/cutscenes are well done, and while some of the factions overlap, the kingdom/vikings have some creative differences.

All in all, a solid thumbs up for $5 or so.