Dark Souls 2 PS3

Good game but looks blurry on PS3. I've finished the game before on PC (SotFS). Go with the PC version if you have the choice.

Titanfall 2

pretty fun FPS with great story and very diverse playstyles. platforming, normal fps (with loads of diverse weapons), and then the titan that heavy tank on legs. played through the campaign in about 13 hours and had lots of fun. Afterwards tried the multiplayer got killed around 10 times without hitting anyone, quit and uninstalled the game ;)

guess mp isn't for me (still recommended for the sp)

What remains of Edith Finch

Well tbh I actually only watched my wife play through it, but I count that as finished aswell ;) it's an amazing story and although a short game it is very much fun and unbelievably detailed everywhere (like wheen looking at bookshelves every book is unique). The story is amazing but still leaves big questions unanswered and the gameplay is quite varied for a "walking/flying/swimming/climbing simulator"
highly recommended

Terminal Velocity (PC CDROM)

It's on GOG but I have an original CD, so I set it up for DOSBOX and away it went with no problems. Well, initially the throttle on my old 4 button USB joystick wasn't working but that was fixed by adjusting DOSBOX settings.

It's basically like a side scrolling shoot-em-up done in 3D. It was something of a tech demo at the time it was released in around '95 at the tail end of the DOS era and needed a high end Pentium to get the SVGA settings. I remember the game well, but only just got around to playing it now.

Like a lot of games that are more like graphical tech demos for their time, they don't really age well. The game is arcade with no real world physics. Just fly from waypoint to waypoint and shoot everything in the way and try not to get shot up yourself. You can explore away from the direct path to destroy out of the way bunkers for power ups. It's short, about 4 to 5 hours made up of 3 episodes of 3 worlds each and each of those consisting of 3 short levels (except the last world which has 2) for a total of 26 levels all up. Add in a suitable soundtrack for the genre.

If you pick it up and expect a fast paced 3D arcade shoot em up, you should have some retro fun like I did. If you want something deeper then maybe not. It did have 2 sequels for Windows and published my Microsoft- Fury3 and Hellbender, but I don't own those ones.

Just beat Driftmoon.
Driftmoon was a very enjoyable lite-RPG game, and it did everything exceptionally well: the story, the companions, the puzzles, and especially the humor.
Looking forward to any future games made by Instant Kingdom.

Are they working on any?

Doesn't look like it. Apart from Notrium Special Edition, it's been pretty quiet around them since 2014. In 2014 Ville made a post on their website stating that Driftmoon was a success, but that making games is always a risk and that you can't count on supporting your family with it, therefor the only reason you should think about creating your own indie game is if you have an idea floating around your head that absolutely must come out and be shared with others. I'm guessing that Driftmoon was such an idea, and that now they are concentrating on supporting their family in more reliable ways?

Cosmonautica

It’s a very slow trading game with crew management set in space. Don’t get me wrong, most trading games are slow but good ones (like Patrician III) constantly offer you new tasks to keep things fresh. Sadly, you can’t find anything like this in Cosmonautica. The game feels terribly empty. Research takes a LOT of time so before you are able to progress you have to do the same thing all the time: pick a mission (there are four basic types: transport goods, transport passengers, smuggle, fight) and/or trade. You can control only one ship so no automated trade routes, just transporting goods from planet A to planet B and selling them with a profit. Sadly, it gets repetitive very fast and with a lot of expenses (maintenance, cleaning, wages) you’ll be earning very little for your effort. So that is slowing you down even further. Crew management sounds cool as an idea but is terribly executed. If you pick incompatible crew members they will hate each other and leave you sooner or later. So don’t bother socializing them. Pick one type of food and hire people who like this particular type of food and that’s it. They will love each other and you can forget about this whole crew management stuff. Campaign can be funny at times (dialogs) but all quests are basically the same you do all the time - missions/trade/research so it’s pretty dull. I can’t really recommend it.


Full list

Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY

I had already started this once before but abandoned it after what can be considered the tutorial parts because I wasn't in the mood for it at the time and thought it didn't look very interesting. Recently though I was craving to play something kind of similar to the new Tomb Raider games or the newer Far Cries, story oriented, open world-ish with collectables, ability unlocks, not too frustrating, and this was quite a good fit for what I was looking for.

The story still wasn't the most exciting, but it grew on me, and besides, it isn't all that essential for having fun with the game. Production values - voice actors, sound design etc. - were quite good. I don't really like the character of Harley Quinn who plays a bigger role in this game - a guard at Arkham Asylum once asked me: "Can you believe she was a doctor here once?", and yeah, I still find that hard to believe, given the level of intelligence she displays. She's more like the secretary of the Ghostbusters, with a lot of good will. But whatever.

I'm notoriously not a fan of boss battles, so what I liked about Arkham Asylum is that they're few and far between, rather easy for average skilled players on Normal difficulty, so that they never really get in the way, and that it's not totally predictable which villains you will have to fight directly in combat and how the encounters with them will play out. There was quite a bit of variety in gameplay, too, and a bunch of cool gadget, as is fitting for a Batman game. Also a bunch of backtracking if you're after the collectables, since you don't always have the means to reach them yet, the first time you spot them, which I'm not all that fond of, but since the areas aren't that big and collectable hunting was a nice casual distraction from story and combat, it was still acceptable.

All in all, I really enjoyed the game this time, and I'm looking forward to trying Arkham City which is supposed to be even better.

I Expect You to Die (PSVR)

This is basically a puzzle game. In each scenario you’re a James Bond type spy and you’re in a situation of imminent death, and you have to use clues and items around you to stop that from happening!

There are 5 different missions, each in a unique location. You cannot move from where you start each mission, so in that sense it’s like a locked room and you have to use whatever is immediately at hand. You can however use telekinesis to grab or manipulate objects far away across the room.

The tone of the game is quite humorous, it doesn’t take itself seriously.

The game felt quite short, but perhaps that’s simply because I found it very enjoyable and wanted to play more. Each mission takes much less than 1 hour to solve, but they can be replayed to collect all the “souvenirs” which are basically like achievements for doing different things (such as solving puzzles in different ways, or beating a speed run time for the mission) so overall I’d estimate I spent about 1.5hrs per mission.

Overall I found the game very enjoyable, and I’d certainly recommend it if you’ve got VR.

Price

It is a free and short escape-the-room / adventure game style puzzler. There are two rooms, and a full playthrough will take 90 minutes. Gameplay consists of clicking on hotspots to collect 'Clues' and inventory items. Clues can be combined to make different clues. Inventory items are used to interact with other hotspots, and only one item can be active at a time.

Story is supernatural and not mysterious, but quick enough to not be tedious. Art is visual novel level, and the characters are well done, while the environments are lacking the same detail. Most things are logical, and for the one or two that are not, clicking on everything with each item active, revisiting every hotspot, or combining Clues clears it up. Voiced lines are there, and I am just going to assume it is better in the native language. It's not bad, more flat.

Overall it is a fun diversion, and I enjoyed getting to quickly move through the story. The first room was better, so if you don't care for it by the end of that, just stop.

Chuchel

Cute and silly little game. The gameplay is mostly simple and easy and reminded me a bit of Daedalic's Fire - which is no big surprise, since I assume Daedalic took inspiration from Amanita games for that - in any case, both titles are more like a collection of random puzzle scenes without much coherence or story, although there actually is a common thread and some character development in Chuchel, just not as much as in Botanicula (at least from what I remember). It's also shorter than Botanicula (about 2 hours) but the style and humor is kind of similar and the music by DVA as well. I enjoyed my time with it, it was fun as long as it lasted.



Oh, and I also finished the bonus episode Farewell for Life is Strange: Before the Storm yesterday, but I've already written down my thoughts on the game before, and they haven't changed much.

Did the neutral & bad endings in Strife: Veteran's Edition earlier today.
I had beaten the game/gotten the good ending back in January, but just got around to finishing up the other two endings.
Doing the neutral/bad ending route cuts off about 1/2 the game world to you, and you miss out on getting 2 levels of upgrades & the super-strength power...it does seem possible to backtrack into the 2nd town hub, however doing so means playing through 3 or so very tough maps in reverse.

Really enjoyed the weapons, the inventory system, and that the game opened/closed off areas & NPCs depending your actions....all this in the Doom engine, too.
All in all, Strife: Veteran's is in my top 5 favorite FPS game list, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys doom engine games and wants something challenging to play.

The Witcher

A replay, obviously. I plan to replay the whole trilogy in 2018, as well as the Mass Effect quadrilogy in 2018. Won't let me much time for other games, I fear...

The Witcher is the Witcher. Fantastic characters, interesting setting and lore... and maybe it was a trip to memory lane too much. Even if comparing the graphics to the next installments is silly, the game systme is quite cluncky, with lots of times nothing happens when you click somewhere. In a fight, it's a bit frustrating.

I was also appaled by the low quality of the dubbing in my native tongue. Talk about an immersion breaker!

Still, The Witcher is a great game, but i ended making the same choices than during my first play! Let's see what will happen with The Witcher 2, then...

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2018/post12

Parappa the Rapper Remastered (PS4)

Have you ever wanted to play a rhythm game where you control a 2 dimensional dog in a beanie whose in love with a talking flower, in a town where everyone is obsessed with hip hop and you get taught Karate by a moustachioed anthropomorphic Onion? If yes, then this is the game for you. If no, eh, play it anyway. While rhythm games aren't my favourite genre it is one of the most addictive and stressful genre's for me, I badly injured my hand once trying to beat Jumping Jack Flash on Ultra Hard in Elite Beat Agents. The game was short, there are only 6 levels that each last around 3 - 4 minutes each. I had real trouble in this game, some parts that I was sure I did perfectly were apparently failures, and others I was sure I failed were deemed acceptable. It was stressful as there is no real indicator for which particular beats you miss, and I felt that certain sections were unfairly strict on what constituted 'acceptable' (Apparently this is an issue caused by lag in the remastered version). Anyway it was fun, it's currently on offer on PSN (I wouldn't pay full price for this) and I'd recommend it, however I would recommend other rhythm games over this one.