Epistory - Typing Chronicles

I never thought a typing game could be this much fun. The campaign is pretty short, around 5-ish hours, after which you'll probably want to try out the arena mode and see how you fare in the rankings. How well you do at these, as well as the main game itself, is not purely determined by your typing speed. There are special attacks: fire, ice, wind and spark, which you can use to, consecutively, burn words, freeze monsters, blow back monsters and zap multiple words. If you use these well then you can easily do much better than a fast typist who simply types all the words on the screen s/he sees.

Based on how much fun I had with this I'm definitely going to try out Typing of the Dead next.

Superfrog (Amiga)

Upfront disclosure - this is a somewhat biased review. Superfrog was the game of my childhood and therefore still has the booming nostalgia effect on me. I spent days playing it on my Amiga and loved it more than any other Amiga classic. Therefore, I didn't touch the game many years afterwards, maybe worried that it would not live up to my expectations and harm my fond memories. Thankfully, I was wrong. Superfrog is still a perfect platformer and unfairly sometimes compared to Super Mario (considering games that defined genres don't really own those genres). Superfrog is great in its own way, with its eye candy graphics -it is still exciting to collect those fruits and coins- and relatively slowish careful approach to platform gaming. There are no unfair deaths and no stupid perfect precision/timing moments, the latter in my opinion still being a horrible game design that still haunts even new platformers. The only problem I can mention is the level ends where you need to gamble on slot machines in order to unlock mission codes. However, we lived in a different world in early 90s and the player expected to spend a lot of time with a game bought by hard earned cash. It was therefore a decision to add a longer play value to the game and it is not a problem anymore since you can either google the codes for the missions you have already beaten or even make use of the save function of Amiga Forever (shame on you if you did not buy it yet. I love you Cloanto!!!).

Do yourself a favor and play Superfrog on Amiga. Avoid the stupid and unnecessary "HD" version.

damien score: 9.5/10

List of all games finished in the last years with best and worst games played in each year

Shadow Complex is a pretty entertaining 2.5-D Metroid-like game. It has an action movie setup in that you're controlling a generic and kind of unlikable guy out hiking with his girlfriend who uncovers a massive base hidden in the mountains being used by a bunch of super high-tech domestic terrorists. They're like Cobra except not as flamboyant. So you have to run around the base and gradually upgrade your weapons and piece together a supersuit that makes you tougher and lets you do crazier moves that allow you reach previously unreachable areas.

I understand that a big part of what made the game special was that it was sort of the killer app for Xbox Live a few years back. Separated from that context, it's fun, it held my attention well enough, but with so many similar games coming out, particularly in the indy scene, I think it's fallen back a little. The base is pretty generic-looking all over, which kind of takes the fun and mystery out of exploring it - no matter where you go, it generally looks the same - which is a big part of the genre's appeal for me. The combat is a bit wonky, too. The game places enemies in the backgrounds but in many instances you'll find yourself shooting the ceilings or floors instead of aiming into the distance. Fortunately the game is just the right length and is good enough to end just as it started to feel a bit wearying as I ran out trying to scrape up extra power-ups.

23.4 - Final Fantasy IX (Android)

Awesome story, decent port, absolutely horrendous transition times due to autosaving. I may've or may've not cheated to beat last boss to see the ending and may and may not reload to right this wrong.

SPOILER ALERT!

How the fuck do you beat Necron without cheating? I must've missed some items and abilities. My party also isn't at ridiculously high level (tad bit under 50) but come on, seriously? I managed to beat every other boss with next to no sweat, and I keep getting annihilated by Necron. It's attacks are completely random and you can get squashed before you even manage to issue a single command. The fact I ran out of hi potions and elixirs isn't really helping either. The save blob offers teleport option to the memoria enterance, should I try to go back somewhere and restock? Something? Anything?

Luigi's Mansion - Dark Moon: really fun and "spooky" game. Better than the original in my opinion though some timed mission are really tedious to get the best ranking.

New Super Mario Bros. 2: Best Mario game I've ever played since SMB3 for NES (I prefer it over 3D Land which I also finished some time ago).

Metal Gear: HAD to play it now that I got myself the Legacy Collection of the series (and never played any game except for the beginning of Solid).

Metal Gear 2: liked it better than the original but my god these games are cryptic and old now...

Metal Gear Solid: did NOT age well. Graphics look horrible now and seriously deserves a remake... Controls are ok though. Had a fun time and liked it more than I remember :)

Metal Gear Solid 2: WTF? The story was awesome and my god so many predictions about the future and data mining etc... Seriously, gave me goosebumps reading about the future from these 2002/2003 game and seeing how it actually happened... Maybe we need to start tracking these "Patriots", huh? :P

Rayman Origins: LOVED IT.

Still racing: Gran Turismo 6...
On the finish line: Metal Gear Solid 3 (so far I prefer 2), Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies.
Starting soon: Metal Gear Solid 4 and MAYBE Red Dead Redemption.

How dare you?!
You filthy disgusting... yeah, I played that too, it wasn't too shabby.


I forgot to post I beat Saint's Row IV + all DLC last week.
It was once again great game. I enjoyed all SR games I played, all o them bit differently. SR2 would be probably bets one if ti wasn't so buggy and awful port overall. If it was made in the same engine as the later ones, it would be great.
This one I really enjoyed how wacky it was and using superpowers was good. I missed driving around, though.
I had a lot of laughs with it. The Asha's rescue mission was one of the funniest missions I ever played and I don't even know MTG that much.
I had almost no technical troubles except the fact that the game kept switching to windowed mode on launch and kept resetting difficulty to normal.

Great game for everyone who likes open world city games, doesn't mind silliness and is not offended by its violent and offensive nature.

Full list.

MGS had a remake on Gamecube.

<span class="bold">Back to the Future: The Game</span>

I heard a lot of praise for this game, and I was surprised it turned out so well. The story is great, it's the closest thing we'll get to Back to the Future 4. The gameplay is very similar to games such as Sam & Max season 1 through 3. However, after a long time since released, there are still some bugs left. A few times the dialogue voice over was missing, and a few objects loaded a bit too late.
The game has a lot of puzzles, since this is one of Telltale Games older series, most of the puzzles are good, but there were a few odd one, activated by a cutscene that I needed to start.
I would recommend you play this only if you saw the movies, since there are a lot of references, and key moments, that make this game so great.

Complete list of games finished in 2016.

Just beat Sunset Riders for the Genesis/Mega Drive. I don't think it's quite as fun as the arcade (and it felt more difficult, weirdly enough), but it's still pretty cool. Classic Konami running and shooting action with a western theme. For a video game genre that doesn't show up very often, western games generally do tend to be pretty good, probably because you have really like the genre to think to make a game based on it. At least I don't think anyone is sitting in a boardroom and yelling, "Old West games! The kids love those - we need to make more! Tons of them!"

Yeah, but I don't have access to a Gamecube and every single fan seems to hate because of the new voices recording and the "over the top" cinematics (which wasn't that big of a deal for me with what I saw on YouTube).

Twin Snakes was badass. Also I think if your playing the HD collection I'm not sure if the graphics are quite as nice as the PS2 originals. From what I played Peace Walker HD was definitely not the Kojima PSP version, seems like the Snake model for example was recreated by someone less talented. I think I may have tried out HD Snake Eater as well.

Bit like Bully HD was the same, PS2 original looked better. HD Silent Hills were excellent though I think they kept the original assets.

Yeah, HD Collection (part of the Legacy Collection). Graphics look awesome. Not sure about the Snake Model, seems the same to me. Silent Hills HD was a disaster due to being a beta version of the game. Konami didn't have the original files from the retail games so they provided a beta version to the team working on them and the results were bugs and bugs and more bugs (mostly fixed on the PS3 though... though some noises and general ambience was lost).

Hmm, played through Silent Hill 2 and 3 HD without any bugs, they must not have been that bad.

Looks like your right, MGS2 and 3 are using the same assets as the original ones, just higher res, which is ideal.

Actually I think Peace Walker just didn't look so hot in HD is what is was.

Lara Craft GO - Another Square Enix game that adapts one of their franchises to the mobile world. This one eschews the board game aesthetic of Hitman GO (which I greatly enjoyed), and becomes a straight forward turn based puzzler. Lara Croft is not a board game piece like Agent 47, and gone are the turn limits. It's still a good puzzle game, but lacks the coolness of Hitman GO.

Framed - A unique, enjoyable mobile game with a hard-boiled, noir atmosphere where one has to arrange the panels to allow the character to sneak past gangsters and policeman. It's short, but has a bit of challenge and it's fun to see how you can fail. One negative aspect of this game is that there aren't any sound effects to accompany the playback of your arrangement, and the music fades out during this as well.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - An excellent improvement over the first Splinter Cell. I though the first in the series was rather rigid in failure modes, lots of instant fail missions, which this game rightly loosens. The level design is excellent, and the environments that you are sneaking through are filled with multiple options for completing. The gadgets are enjoyable to use, and the OCP which disrupts electronics is a welcome addition. No more wasting ammunition to disable lights.

Medal of Honor - A perfect specimen of the modern, military shooter, "the walking simulator with guns". It's a visually impressive game, but that's mostly guaranteed nowadays with AAA games. It's a good experience, so long as you don't deviate from the path. However, the ability to turn the HUD off allows for a less railroaded experience. Overall, a fine movie-like experience, but not a engaging game.

Dark Souls 1

Oh god, finally finished after three playthroughs and lost saves. After having played and finished DS2, the inventory interface is annoying as hell, the upgrades system is a burden (too much titanites), the code for the online on PC is subpar, can't respec the stats, less deep customization of viable builds and so on. On the plus side, the world/level design is still unique and well-thought and the places and bosses are more memorable. Welll now, I just have to wait patiently for the goty version of DS3.... ^o^