I am finished with Hydrophobia Prophecy. I didn't fully complete the game as I found the final boss battle to be extremely tedious, boring and impossibly difficult and frustrating. I ended up deciding to stop playing the game rather than continue as I would have ended up in an angry rage and wanting to smash something. It started out interesting and was fun to a degree through most of the game, but the end is just ridiculously unbalanced and totally not fun. Here's my full review:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/skeletonbow/recommended/92000

More fun to watch a playthrough on YouTube of someone else cursing and swearing than to play through the final boss battle. YMMV

Just finished Blackwell Unbound.

Crystal Mines 2, Lynx

Ah, sweet satisfaction.

My brothers and I got Lynxes as Christmas presents back when Lynx's existed. Although the Lynx is now known as a failed system, I know that I never thought of it that way--if there weren't very many good Lynx games, I spent hours playing the ones I did own, Shadow of the Beast, Todd's Adventures In Slime World, Junk Yard Dog, and Crystal Mines 2. Especially Crystal Mines 2.

This remains one of my top puzzle games of all time, and I really feel that if it hadn't been exclusive to a doomed handheld system, it would be fondly remembered. You play as a robot (or rather, you are *cough* "controlling a robot with your Lynx Robot Controller") from a top-down perspective in a 2-D plane. Your goal is to collect a certain amount of treasure and then reach the exit which will then appear. Your robot has very limited controls--you can shoot, you can use bombs that you collect, which will destroy some things your shots cannot, and you can push boulders. You can also self-destruct if you have rendered the level impossible. Your robot is highly delicate for a mining machine; one hit from any of the monsters wandering around the mine will kill you, being crushed by a boulder will kill you, as will a number of other things that you discover as you press onward.

At the start, this game is completely straightforward; you're in a level full of dirt and a few basic monsters. Blast your way through dirt and monsters, grab the treasure, leave. But it quickly amps up: explosive blocks, radioactive blocks that will "poison" and quickly (in a few seconds) destroy your robot if you touch them (unless you find a curing item in time), red slime that spreads slowly through the level and will kill your robot if you get stuck in it, but which turns into crystals if you bomb it twice; one-way gates, gravity changing mechanics, holes that will swallow your robot or any gems that fall into them, one-way gates, golden pipes that turn rocks into gems and gems into rocks colored rocks that fell upwards or downard depending on their color, which could be changed by shooting them, and a lot more.

So I played this game a lot as a kid, and got quite far. But I never beat it, and I made full-use of the level-skip option that the game provides if you keep failing ("You seem to be having trouble. Press A to skip this level. Press B to take more punishment). On and off I tried again in later life I came back to it, starting at the first level and trying to conquer, and eventually getting stuck each time. I mean, I don't want to make it seem like this was some kind of life-long obsession; years would go by without my playing Crystal Mines 2. But it was a game I loved and never managed to beat, which remained at the back of my head.

Well, some time ago I began my last attempt. I got quite far (into the 130's or 140's out of 150 levels) before being stopped dead. I spent weeks failing to beat the same level, and gave up. Came back months later, beat that level (still the only level I remember thinking was unfair in its design), progressed a little, hit another wall. Struggled, put the game down, came back later, conquered. And from there, it was a pretty straightforward path to victory. The last level was challenging and satisfying, but only took me a few hours compared to the two road-blocks that almost ruined this run.

This game was actually ported/remade for both the PSP and the NDS, but it may never have been released in the states and is in any event long out of print, with a aingle used NDS version on sale at Amazon for a hundred bucks. If you like puzzle games, and if you don't see a problem with emulating the console equivalent of abandonware (which I don't, but different stroked and all that) then I recommend it.

OddPlanet (Platformer)

There are five languages to choose from when you load the game, but thereafter, there are no options. There is a faint button in the top right corner that will give you the option to return to the main menu, but it won't even pause the game.

Use the arrow keys to move left, right, and jump, and the space bar to creep and/or interact with objects. If you want to pick something up, the down button is more reliable than the space bar. Movement feels clunky, as the keys are not as responsive as I'd like.

The graphics are lovely and environmental, and the music is nice. We have occasional thought bubbles that pop up, and there are intermittent voiceovers, as well.

Gameplay is standard platforming with some simple puzzles and interactions. You will die -- a lot -- and that's not a bad thing, except when it happens because of poor controls. Still, the game got a lot more interesting when I hit episode 2, so I persevered.

It's worth playing if you happen to have it in your library. While I enjoyed the game, I'm afraid that I cannot recommend it unless you got it either deeply discounted or bundled. It is very short (three episodes), and the ending is both abrupt and unsatisfying.

Sorry devs. I believe that your work here shows promise, and I hope that you'll come out with an awesome game so that I can give a great review!

Full list of finished games HERE

<span class="bold">Day of the Tentacle Remastered</span>

I was a little pissed off when the Linux version of this remastered classic hit GOG's virtual shelves and there was no sale to celebrate the occasion (unlike at Steam and the Humble Store). Fortunately that wrong was righted shortly after when Day of the Tentacle Remastered was part of a weekend promo so I could finally grab it and replay it in its full HD and remastered glory.

What can I say... To me DotT represented the pinnacle of the graphical adventure genre and LucasArts's finest masterpiece regarding both storytelling and production values: a crazy, off-rails plot right from the start, the novelty -and added complexity- of controlling 3 different characters in 3 different temporal lines, the best and most detailed graphics one could expect in the (in our modern and spoiled eyes) ridiculously low resolutions of DOS games from that time, and a magnificent score throughout only topped by the presence of -gasp- voice acting during the intro cutscenes! In my opinion neither Monkey 3 nor, needless to say, Grim Fandango can even begin to compare with Tim Schafer's (and Dave Grossman's) opera prima.

And I'm extremely happy to report that this remastered edition hasn't let me down in the slightest. If anything, I curse my excellent memory, as I remembered the solution to every single puzzle almost without fail, so I completed my new playthrough in what seemed like a breeze. I was instantly sold on the new artstyle, but not so much on the new streamlined (as well as a little dumbed down) user interface, so I opted for the remastered-everything-with-old-UI combo. Pity that the SCUMM interface is incompatible with a widescreen resolution, though...

It's also great that you can switch between original and HD artstyles at will by pressing the F1 key. I found myself changing styles back and forth in certain scenes, just to reassure me the original graphics were way blockier and pixely than I seemed to remember (or than I cared to admit). The fact that I spent most of my playthrough almost believing that I was playing the original DOS version speaks volumes of how good a job Double Fine has done to wash this timeless classic's face in order to bring it to a new generation of players, but keeping old farts like me on board at the same time.

The icing on this already delicious cake would be the optional audio commentary by Schafer, Grossman, artists Chan and Ahern, and composers Bajakian and McConnell. It's a pleasure to hear them reminisce about the good old days when making a big budgetted videogame was still closer to a craftmanship than an industry, where illustrators without any animation experience were nonetheless hired as animators, or where the animation of the whole introductory credits scene was assigned to an intern. Aaaah, those were indeed the days... and not only because the ESRB didn't even exist yet. :P

My list of finished games in 2016

Just finished Blackwell Convergence.

Full list of games completed in 2015-2016 in my Steam profile "Info and Interests" box here, need to scroll down to the bottom of the box:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/skeletonbow/

<span class="bold">Cube Escape</span> (Android)

For a long time, whenever I was browsing the games section of the Google Play app, it would recommend me the Cube Escape series of short games. And I would invariably dismiss said recommendations as all of them looked like yet another generic room escape game at first sight. But the other day the first game in that series was featured in the latest 'Games You Might Not Have Tried' video from Extra Credits, and it was praised for its creepy themes and visuals, and for having an interesting narrative that allegedly set it apart from the rest of the genre. So I figured out it was time to give in and try it.

And yep, its visuals and themes are creepy as fuck. I loved them. Definitely not suited for children or particularly sensitive adults, though. However the other alleged strength of these games, namely their rich and deep narrative, I really couldn't find it. Yes, there is some sort of a story being told in each episode/game, and some elements keep re-appearing later, giving a slight semblance of cohesion and continuity, but in fact each game is completely independent of the others and the 'story', as well as the actions you need to perform in order to escape, make no sense whatsoever. So, after all, and at least gameplay-wise, they are just like any other room escape game out there.

But on the other hand I don't regret in the slightest having played through the 8 freely available episodes(*), if only for their eerie and macabre visuals. I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys weird things in games. Just don't expect to be enthralled by a powerful story though, because there's none in this series of games.


(*) There's yet another one that costs $1.99/1.99€ (yay regional pricing! :\), and is also available for Windows and Mac on Steam and DRM-free on itch.io.


My list of finished games in 2016

Descent 3

I just finished the base game (GOG version) in the Insane difficulty level, next checking the expansion pack and other missions there are.

I both like and hate the game, I can't tell for sure if I consider it a good game or not. At times I really enjoyed playing it, at times I was quite angry at playing it. I'd say that if a few of the tougher and irritating enemy types would have been removed from the game, it would have been a great game. Some enemies (regular enemies, not necessarily bosses) were just stupid hard, you just couldn't normally hit them with your weapons as they dodged almost anything you threw at them.

Also some of the boss fights were stupid, like the last boss. They just made him insanely powerful and it is next to impossible for you to avoid taking heavy damage from it, if you try to fight it. You will die over and over again while doing so. So the way I finally beat the last boss was performing around 50 suicide strikes at it, just so that I could get a few laser shots and missiles at it before it destroyed me over and over again.

Oh yeah, that is the funny thing about Descent 3 gameplay: you have unlimited amount of lives. I have a feeling this is because they realized at some point that they had made the game just damn too hard and people will constantly keep dying in the game... so they fixed that by granting players unlimited lives. Ok then, I guess that is better than nothing even though it unfortunately makes those "suicide strikes" and even committing suicide (in order to e.g. get full energy levels when you respawn) viable tactics, which kinda sounds stupid, mainly because it is stupid.

Oh well, the game still had its moments where I really enjoyed it.

House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)

If you don't know the House of the Dead series, it's that light gun rail shooter game with the zombies you see at arcades and bowling allies. As far as I know this is the 5th game in the series (If you don't count the typing games) and the most mature in terms of the age rating, it is also one of the most immature. The game is set like one of those cheesy cop movies, playing as Agent G, the cold, sunglass wearing agent from the previous games and Isaac Washington, the loud constantly swearing detective. They are on a mission to take down Papa Caesar and his army of zomb... I mean mutants. The levels are set in typical horror movie settings: creepy mansion, old hospital, strip club. And in each of those settings you face a constant onslaught of 'mutants' appearing left right and centre. At the end of each stage is a boss, which in typical HotD style you must shoot a specific weak point to kill.

I did co-op with a friend and it was really fun, however it was very easy (Except for the boss on the 2nd to last level), the story can get disturbing sometimes, though for the most part is ridiculous action and humour. It is the only HotD I've ever played, I'm more of a fan of Time Crisis myself. It's a very short game, I took 3 hours to complete it, but there are collectibles and minigames to get you going. I'd really only recommend this if you can get it cheap, though it is a good laugh.

<span class="bold">Moirai</span>

This is an almost 3 year old game, whose existence I only discovered yesterday thanks to an article in GamingOnLinux. Intrigued by it, I donloaded it from itch.io (it's also available on Steam) and completed it shortly after.

Indeed, this is an extremely short, experimental first-person game with awfully low-res graphics and a highly annoying control scheme: no mouse support, A/D (or ←/→) make you turn in place, and Q/E let you strafe left and right. Despite this list of cons, I still think this game deserves to be played, as it presents a very nifty mechanic. Which one I won't tell, as that's the main point of the game, and also the less I tell about its plot, the better. Yeah, it's one of those games. As such, some of you will find it brilliant, while others will think it's dull and uninspired. But since it's free and it won't take you longer than 10 minutes, I guess it's worth a try.


My list of finished games in 2016

Finished Gunpoint. A nice indie game with simple gameplay and requires some thought to complete each level. I really liked it.

Full list here.

Just finished Mega Man Unlimited.
Easily the best fan-made Mega Man game I've played. Also, unquestionably the hardest Mega Man game I've played.
Incredible stuff. Spectacular ending.

Dragon Age: Origins

Only took me 34 hours. Now onto the expansions and add-ons. I think I'll be here a while :P Originally played it a little on my brothers PS3 but never got too far and thought it would be better on a computer so I bought it on steam. I forgot about it halfway through playing it though. After it was released on GOG got it again and played straight through. (woohoo! it runs in WINE perfectly)

That whole Dragon Age Keep thing is kind of cool as well. I filled that out and exported my world state to be used on Inquisition on my PS4 when I get around to it... nifty.

I've played it too now, thanks to your post. I thought it was neither of the above, but interesting to try. Cheers! :)

<span class="bold">Resident Evil Revelations</span>

Resident Evil: Revelations is the first Resident Evil game I have played for now. From what I understand, the game is set between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. This felt like a great start for someone new to the series, such as myself. Also most of the cast is new, except for Jill Valentine & Chris Redfield.
The game features a singleplayer campaign represented by a series of scenarios collected together into 12 episodes. Most of the scenarios involve the player controlling Jill Valentine aboard a ghost ship in the Mediterranean Sea, but some require the player to play as other characters in different settings. There is also Raid Mode, where one or two players may fight their way through a selection of altered scenarios from the singleplayer campaign.
Exploration is really important here, I found myself once or twice with no ammo and a lot of enemies in front of me. All I had was a knife, but I somehow managed to pass. And then I was so careful to avoid getting hit and not to waste any ammo, that by the end of the game, every time I found something I was already full on ammo, health herbs, grenades and weapon mods. I might've been at fault for the low ammo at the start, since I played with a controller, but I regret nothing.
I highly recommend the following setting: use Japanese voice overs with English subtitles. I tried two times the English version, but I preferred the Japanese version a lot more.

Complete list of games finished in 2016.