Hard Reset Redux gifted to me by Gleacer

HRR is a frantic FPS. The levels are smaller, linear, and pretty generic, and the SOP of the game is to unleash bunches of enemies. Run, dodge, shoot, repeat. Gameflow is typically walk along an empty street until you trigger the next mass of robots and then shoot everything until it is quiet again. The game gives you two guns at start, and you can switch between them at any point. Each has a visual style, independent ammo, and an upgrade path. There are options, and which upgrades you pick should flow from the tactics you use, and there's enough experimenting to play with without so much to be drowning in choices.

Weakest part of the game is the story, which is mainly filler. But it is fun, and while it is not long, that also means there are not huge lulls. It's an old-school shooter, and the action-focused gameplay is done well enough to make for a positive experience overall.

Capitalism 2

Another of those games you are never really finished, but I've played all the campaigns and a few custom games. It is a great economic sim, in which you run various businesses trying to out maneuver your competitors.

The campaigns are divided into two sets. The first set is really extended tutorials, and pretty forgettable. The second set is more specific challenges and more fun. Scenarios include having a lead in a technology and having to build production before your competitors catch up, starting with a mountain of cash and having a short timeframe to hit a large target of profit, and my favorite scenario, competing in a market where your competitors are ahead of you technologically and you have to play catch up before they can outstrip your existing operation.

The real meat of the game though is the custom scenarios that are basically a sandbox mode you can tweak. These give you up to 4 random cities, and let you try any strategy en route to whatever goal you have set.

I purchased on gog recently, but I've owned the game for a long time now, and it is one I keep coming back to. It's worth a look if you enjoy managerial games and working to vertically integrate your supply chain sounds like fun.

A new beginning

A rather mediocre adventure.
The controls are fine and most of the puzzles are good too, if a bit too easy for my taste. I only dislike one puzzle due to its boring nature, but the rest is ok.
The graphics are good and so is the music with only the sometimes choppy animations and bad lip-syncing to lessen the overall quality a bit.
Beware, for the game is buggy; during my playthroughs I discovered a few bugs that can really annoy, like a bug that makes the save feature unusable and a rarer bug that can make one of the puzzles unsolvable.
The story is not bad, but the environmental message is handled in a very unsubtle way. The characters also have the tendency to act unnatural, partly due to less than stellar English voice-acting and partly due to circumstances; like, for example, hawing a forced pep-talk while surrounded by explosives.

There is nothing terrible about this game, but sadly nothing great as well. A run of the mill modern adventure with an on the nose environmental message and a few aggravating bugs. I wish the puzzles were more challenging, and that the characters could talk a bit more natural. It's fine, not great, but fine.
6/10

Include me! :)

Better late than never!

- Yoshi's Island
- Faerie Solitaire
- Qvadriga
- The Sting
- Terra Nova SFC
- Puyo Puyo 2 (Mega Drive/Wii's vc)

and something more that I can't remember right now.

edit: such as The Guest, Her Story and Achtung Panzer Kharkov 1943!

Except for Night in the Wood - obvious - these other 6 games were ones I actually finished/gave a good boost some years ago

o_O

Weird... ;P

Thimbleweed Park

It started out awesome, then the loose ends / unmarked goals reached critical mass and I gave up on the game and followed a walkthrough to the end. The art and some of the puzzles are amazing (my favorite is getting the wrench). However, as many people mentioned, the game does suffer from reference-itis. Not only it makes the devs fail their stated goal -- creating a "lost LucasArts adventure", it also hurts the game as a standalone product because I could never know which of the wacky shit was a puzzle piece and which was hahalolololrandum. The ending was oh-so-subversive, predictable in advance and pointless; a bunch of plot threads and what seemed like leads to satisfying puzzles get abruptly cut. Really, I wanted to love the game, but nope.

World of Goo (PC)

Great physics game, very similar to a lot of those bridge builder style games out there with a cartoonish, immature vibe. Story is... I don't know. The puzzles are difficult but all of them are doable without too much struggling. Would recommend.

Pikmin (Gamecube)

Gotta love backwards compatability, Nintendo classic where you control a bunch of little minions on an alien planet and try to repair your crashed spaceship before your life support fails and you're forced to breathe deadly oxygen. Each day you have a short amount of time to try recover the pieces of your spaceship, with help from the pikmin, little creatures who you command to take down enemies, build bridges and carry objects. You only have 30 days to finish your ship, but the time is perfectly manageable. I took 2 days, and did really well keeping the Pikmin alive, until I got 200 killed in a kamikaze mission in the last level, but the important thing is that I managed to escape. Would highly recommend though I believe it's only available on Gamecube and Wii and only as physical copies.

Titan Quest

I think that will fill my ARPG quota for a while. :P

It's on the Wii U's eShop, also! ;)
Great review, pal!

SOMA
Some time ago I played Gemini Rue, a nice little adventure with themes of memories and identity. Man, did I have flashbacks to that game while playing SOMA. In a good way mind you. They both focus on similar themes, but I think SOMA did a better job. I really liked the story and its themes.
I will say this: SOMA is the best game from Frictional games to date. The presentation is excellent and so is the immersiveness.

However, I do have a few gripes with the game:
-The stealth is just as easy as it has been since penumbra, possibly even easier.
-Death means nothing, which lessens the overall impact; it's supposed to be a horror game, right?
-Puzzles were never very challenging in Frictional's games, but SOMA's are by far the easiest.
-Some enemies feel almost supernatural, which is nonsense in a story about 'machines and men'.
-Frictional still has that 'earthquake' fetish. First time its fine, but more than that and it gets annoying.
-'A Machine for pigs' got a lot of hate for gutting the inventory; so why does SOMA get a free pass for doing the same thing? Items glow, are picked up, stored and used automatically. At least in Amfp you had to consciously carry the items around; as pointless as it was even then.
-If you played Frictional's previous games than you know what the level design is going to be like.

When it comes to the story, immersiveness and presentation: Frictional's best.
When it comes to the gameplay: same old stealth, failure means nothing, gutted inventory, easy puzzles, familiar level design mentality.
I still think it's The best game from Frictional, but I sincerely wish they would upgrade the gameplay for their next game as well as the presentation.
8/10

Payday: The Heist

I've had a slow start this year, but finally managed to complete all campaigns of Payday: The Heist and can now call it finished. The game is very similar to Left 4 Dead, in the sense that survivors are replaced by robbers and zombies by hundreds and hundreds of cops. Every mission you need to complete some tasks to make progress and good cooperative team is a must if you want to make any kind of progress. Some campaigns are absolutely great (First World Bank, Diamond Heist, Green Bridge) and some are just average, but they are unique enough to offer a different experience from each other.

Some of the drawbacks are, not so great enemy AI and level-up style gameplay. I am not really a fan of online shooters where your gameplay time puts you ahead of other players, rather than skill. At least, Payday: The Heist does not do that in a very irritating way. As long as you choose a difficulty proportionate to your "Level", you will not be lacking.

To conclude, Payday: The Heist really does make you feel like in a classic robbery movie like Heat or Killing Zoe. It is not something to keep you play for hundreds of hours without getting repetitive, but it does offer great fun for about 20-30 hours. It is not the best co-op shooter, but definitely a good alternative to Left 4 Dead or Killing Floor.

damien score: 7.5/10

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

Ultimate General: Gettysburg
A gift from adamhm, thanks a lot again

I've finished the game five times, choosing different sides and difficulty settings. I'm sure I haven't seen everything the game has to offer but at this point I'm satisfied and may mark the game as beaten.

It's a surprisingly deep strategy game! Mostly because scenarios are connected so if you lose too many troops in one of them you may have troubles winning the whole campaign - Pyrrhic victory is not an option. Furthermore, you really have to take care about your troops' morale, otherwise you may lose even if you outnumber your enemy. So the game can be quite challenging, especially at higher difficulty.

I only have three minor complains:
- Controls are awkward at the beginning and designed for mobile devices (drawing a path for your troops).
- Sometimes the end of a scenario is a bit artificial (you just get an order "withdraw your troops").
- AI is quite good but usually at the beginning of a scenario it has a mercy time - he doesn't use its advantages but let you arrange your troops and prepare well for the attack. It doesn't look very realistic.

Still, the game is really great and I can recommend it to any strategy fan.


Full list

Hexcells Plus

More polished and more complicated than the original Hexcells game. Had to repeat some of the levels to get a perfect score. But in the end there was always a complete logical solution. Good game for people who like puzzle games.

Complete list of finished games in 2017

01. King's Quest 4
02. King's Quest 5
03. Loom
04. Legend of Grimrock
05. Left 4 Dead
06. Left 4 Dead 2
07. Ultima VI - The False Prophet
08. Fallout 4

Windosill

A very short adventure game. There's not really a story, it's more about the design and the experience than about the gameplay. Can't say that I'm overly impressed.

Complete list of finished games in 2017

RAGE

For the third time overall. First person shooter, with bandits, mutants and officials to shoot, buggies to race and people to save.