Bombshell

Bombshell is half isometric RPG, half spiritual successor to Duke Nukem. It is lacking in exposition and the levels halfway through are buggy (and has some other bugs) and some fetch quests tested my enjoyment of it, but playing the preview campign of Ion Maiden (the prequel) helped motivate me to finish it and it was worthwhile. I look forward to Ion Maiden.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
PS4, couldn't wait to find out if Feral was porting and pass up the pre-order bonuses.
Starting on the bonus episode tomorrow hopefully :D

I feel like it started off strong but slowed down a bit around the second episode through the ending. Still completely worth it though and I will probably play it again.

Thanks!

Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)

I got a Switch, my first ever portable/handheld machine and this is the game that came bundled. And it's an awesome game as well! A Mario game, set in the Mushroom Kingdom and made by Ubisoft. The basic story is that Ubisoft's Rabbids have invaded Marios world and you have to sort it out, one turn based battle, and one puzzle at a time.

So it's a turn based tactical Mario/Rabbids game...sort of like a more puzzle based XCOM game. Don't be fooled, it starts off simple and shallow, but the game paces itself really well and to get perfect scores all the way through on all battles does actually get challenging as the game goes on. One notable thing compared to XCOM is that the RNG plays less of a role. If you have a clear line of sight then you will always hit your target, if they are behind cover then it is 50% hit and that's the extent of the RNG. It makes the battles more about solving a turn based combat puzzle.

So you battle through each of the 4 worlds. Each world is made up of 9 sets of battles- usually 2 battles each but sometimes more. You get rated on time and keeping your squad intact. Getting perfect scores awards more coins to buy upgraded weapons and skill points for levelling the skill trees.
Each set of battles is usually followed by a couple of puzzle sections. Like the battles they start off very simple and get bigger towards the end. Though it never gets too frustrating- the real focus is on the turn based battles.

I thought it was pretty much perfectly paced game play all the way. You unlock 8 squaddies as you play, starting with Mario and Rabbid versions of Peach and Luigi. Eventually you have Mario, Peach Luigi, Yoshi and their Rabbid versions. You have to choose which 3 to take into battle. My favourite combo was Mario, Peach and Rabbid Mario.

The game looks great on the Switch screen and that is how I played it, as to me the Switch is first and foremost a handheld. Even though the docked mode ups the resolution to 900p...it looks worse stretched on a big display than the lower resolution on the small screen. The game is perfectly presented and has a great symphonic soundtrack.

Initially, if I had any issue with the game it was with the perceived lack of "overwatch" early on. But actually it is incorporated well and it all balances out in the end. You see some characters do have overwatch, as do some enemies. It part of the skill tree for some characters, characters that don't have overwatch have other advantages in their trees to make up for it. Anyway, play the game and you soon realise that overwatch is a defensive tactic and this game is far more about moving to tactical and offensive advantage. But if you insist on defensive overwatch tactics then there are 3 characters with that skill tree ability to keep you happy.

Highly recommended if you like your turn based tactical games. Funny thing about Ubisoft, they are mostly known for making formulaic open world games. Yet their best published games over the past 10 years (apart from AC Origins) have been Child of Light, Mario+Rabbids, the South Park games and Might and Magic X....all turn based combat games. Ubi are missing their true calling.

Giana Sisters: Rise of the Owlverlord

OK, I know, I said I won't play it right away but I changed my mind as I wanted to be done with Giana Sisters. It is more of the same but a bit harder (except final boss, this one is easier than in Twisted Dreams for sure). It uses its gimmicks more which is good thing.
There is still the same issue of it being unpredictable in hit/jump detection.
It is fairly short and can be beaten under 2 hours. I once again collected all artwork gems (and this time also all normal gems) and did the Tima Attack mode and it took me some 5 hours.

Complete list for 2018.

Man, you are making it hard for me. I was eyeing Switch for some time now, hearing praise from all sides. Recently even 1 store finally offered lower price here, so now, it is lamost as low as in much richer parts of the world like US.
But still it is quite substantial amount of money and last console I had was NES, so I don't know.
But it looks so good...

X-Com: Enemy Unknown

I played it on my iPad Pro 12.9in. Game ran smoothly and I encountered no bugs whatsoever. It was a good game overall. My main complaint would be the maps: they were way too repetitive. When I finished the game, it was right about time as I was getting a little bored. Still, enjoyable game with decent TBS strategic battles.

Shadow of the Beast (2016)

Based on the Amiga game of the same name, which I played a Megadrive port of once. I sucked at it, but this game is fairly different from the original. You play as Aarbron, who was captured as a baby and turned into a Beast by a mage and forced to slay enemies in his name. You eventually overcome the mages hold over you and must fight your way through numerous enemies and enact your revenge. This is a 2D action/platformer, it plays similar to the game Bayonetta where you fight enemies in separate 'encounters' and then receive a medal based on damage taken and score. This gives a final score which you can use to buy things such as improved attacks, artwork or the ability to translate dialogue spoken by certain npc's (These are the most expensive items in the game despite only translating about 2 lines of dialogue each). The game is fairly short, only 7 levels which each take around 20 - 40 minutes each to beat (Except 1 which took me an hour). If you have played the original game than you may recall how difficult it was, this game is not difficult, unlocking every achievement doesn't require much skill, and really just involves spamming the stun attacks. One thing that surprised me was how high I got on the global high scores board, despite there being at least 50,000 people on the scoreboard, only about 10 of them appear to have actually tried to get a high score, on one run through of a level I reached the top 20 3 times (Best result was 13th) and the top 100 6 times. Strangely the level I actually tried to get a high score on, I ended up 136th. I found the game enjoyable enough to play through it enough to get every achievement, theoretically this is possible in 1 playthrough but it took me 3. 1 good thing about this game is you can unlock the ability to play the original Shadow of the Beast, with the added extra of being able to play it with infinite lives. I had another go at the original, and I got into it... until a powercut happened and wiped out my progress near the end of Chapter 2. Anyway, I'd recommend it, sale price is quite cheap too.

Dark Souls

Over 2 years after getting stuck at the optional DLC Black Dragon Kalameet boss, I finally beat and went on to finish the game. The final boss was very weak compare to that thing. Started on the NG+, but lost interest a few hours in considering there's no additional content that wasn't in the first playthrough.

GTA4 UNLESS you count the last mission. :P

14 times now man. :P And I only kept dying on the last little bit. I'm really pissed about not finishing that, but I have enough mental illness to deal with that added frustration, especially when everyone keeps saying, "Oh, that part's easy!"

Any, on to EFLC for shit and giggles and then maybe a nice slow relaxing RPG.

As for the game itself. all told, a step back in the series. It wasn't bad, it just seemed kind of lifeless compared to SA. They got rid of so many of the activities that were such a huge part of the franchise. No taxi (not like it was), no ambulance, no fire, and even car theft was stripped down. Also, the missions themselves were all very similar. Other GTA games have variation, this was more or less find target, kill target. There is none of the cool flying stuff, remote control stuff, espionage that you have in the other titles.

AND the GTA in GTA 4 is a pain in the ass! Seriously, it's a GTA game, and when you would rather hail and pay for a cab to get somewhere rather than utilize the game's namesake, then something is wrong. :P

WRC6 (PS4)

This is a rally driving game, and that’s exactly (and only) what you get. There is nothing else to do in this game except drive in special stages of the WRC and (in career mode) collect points towards the championship; no Rallycross, no Gymkhana, no legacy vehicles, etc. (which I personally view as a feature, not a flaw). There is some car adjustment/tuning, but it’s very basic and I didn’t use it myself. The different rallies do feel different, depending on the surfaces on which you are driving (even the different varieties of gravel feel different).

The game leans much more towards the arcade style of racing game rather than a simulation. The game has a number of driving aids (such as stability and braking), I cannot comment on them because the very first thing I did was turn them all off. You can also turn on an option where damage to your car effects its performance but I still found this way too generous, a crash which would ruin your car in reality still only does minimal damage to your car’s performance. Furthermore, there is an auto-respawn so if you go too far off-track (such as driving off a cliff) you’ll simply re-spawn back on the track with a few seconds time penalty!

The graphics are passable.

Nothing particularly stands out as great, but nothing stands out as poor either.

Overall it’s pretty average, I’d recommend it if you enjoy pure rally driving games because it’s very hard to find good ones and this one is certainly the best one I’ve played in a while.

There's no way around it, the Switch is expensive and not only that, for people using it primarily as a docked home console it's overpriced and woefully underpowered...I mean an Xbox One from 4 years ago has more power. But as a handheld it shines and apparently over half it's cost goes into the display alone. That's probably true when you compare to the cost of smart phones with high end displays- the Switch actually starts to sound cheap compared to top level phones.

With the screen being such a huge part of the cost of the Switch I cannot help wondering how many Nintendo would sell if they took the screen off, put it in a box with a wired classic controller and halved the price...how many people would buy the cheap version just to hook up to their TV and play all the new Nintendo games. Some people have no use for a handheld and all those people are being put off by spending all that money on a screen they will never use.

Finished Far Cry Blood Dragon and I really liked it (100%, which is rare for me). Lots of fun and mayhem !

Full list here.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Malkavian, Anarch ending)

Environments are small, feels kinds janky in places compared to today's standards and was released in a completely busted state that had to be community patched up the wazoo before it was even a game!
Still an amazing achievement, considering it was being developed at the same time as the original Deus Ex, syill lots of fun to play - recommended

Full List:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2018/post99

Mind the density! A lot of quests and interesting characters. For me much better than today's trend to generate procedurally huge, empty, open worlds...

Shadow of the Beast (1989, Amiga Port)

I couldn't beat this game when I was younger, but I decided to have another stab at it after unlocking it in the Shadow of the Beast remake. Of course I still sucked at it and probably wouldn't be able to complete it normally so I made a rule, you can turn invincibility on and off from the options menu, when you do this it restores all your health, so I decided it would be fair if I could restore all my health a maximum of 3 times each chapter, yes I know its cheap but this game is absurdly difficult compared with the recent remake, and I only did it 9 times throughout the whole game and did finish 2 chapters without restoring at all. This is an action/platformer and at times could be described as bullet hell with the amount of stuff charging towards you. You play as a child turned into a beast by an evil mage, forced into servitude you eventually recover your memories after witnessing the death of your parents and attempt to exact revenge against the mage. As I recall you don't actually fight the evil mage in this game (you don't even fight him in the sequel, you fight him in the 3rd game in the series), you instead fight a series of nameless enemies and bosses (that include: A giant beetle that breathes fire, a hydra and a giant whose only visible parts are his club and one foot, who you kill by punching his foot over and over). Considering the age of the game, released the same year as Wonderboy 3, Revenge of Shinobi and Prince of Persia, it is very good game, chapters are one big stage and the graphics and smoothness are pretty decent (Though the game does lag when entering certain areas), the music is also really good, halfway through a chapter it will often change track and you suddenly feel like something bad's about to happen (Something bad is always happening in this game).

As said earlier, the difficulty is absurd (The Genesis port is even more difficult however due to a glitch making everything move faster, a walkthrough I read made in 2006 said no one had ever finished it legitimately) fireballs, lightning, spikes and enemies often appear simultaneously towards you giving you less than a second to react, and often no time to react making you rely on memory from when you were here last time. The game mentions it has puzzles, these puzzles amount to: This boss requires a particular weapon, go find it, weapon has a timer on it requiring you to run to the boss to defeat it. You reach the end of the level and find a locked door, the key is back where the weapon was through the massive horde of enemies that have since respawned. You reach the end of the 4th chapter after finally beating the boss, you need a key to pass, that key was back in Chapter 2. As you see the puzzles amount to, make sure you take every path in each chapter. The boss fights, are probably the least difficult part of the game, as the strategy amount to running up to them and tanking damage while mashing the attack button, you lose about 2hp each boss fight this way, and this is out of 12. I have to assume this is the strategy they intended as the final boss smashes down a pillar at random from the sky and you have almost no time to dodge it if it appears above you. The high difficulty is probably there, because the game is actually really short if you don't spend most of your time dying, it could probably be done in a hour. Overall its a good game though, you know, when you're cheating like I did, otherwise its a nightmare.