Just beat Bastion on PS4. Hilariously for years I thought Bastion was a JRPG with pixel art graphics which is one of the reasons I didn't try it for a long time - already its title and artwork put me off. A few years ago a friend who loves the game told me that I got literally everything wrong about it and I got interested after all - I just finally gave it a shot and I loved it.

Since everyone and their dog has played this game already I'll refrain from talking much about it. I really dug the gameplay, even though it's pretty basic and it does nothing too original - the combat just is satisfying. What makes the game a masterpiece are the gorgeous graphics, amazing soundtrack and the narrator. I'll be honest, the game isn't a masterpiece of writing but its delivery is just spot on, with pieces of the puzzle being revealed very gradually - it really kept me interested all the way through. And I absolutely love how the narrator, with his growly voice, won't just tell the story while we walk around the floating remnants of the world and fight through swarms of enemies but will usually comment on events happening on screen - some of those gave me a really good laugh and it gave meaning to the stuff happening in such a basic action game. It's brilliant. I actually knew that Supergiant Games used narrators in this manner but I honestly had no idea how amazing this actually is during gameplay.

I really enjoyed the game so much, I might actually play it some more and go for a platinum trophy here. Then again, now I'm also really looking forward to playing Transistor...

Dead Man's Draw

This is a pretty easy to learn single player card game. There are various pirate themed suits, and in a basic match, the highest value of each suit in your hand counts. You flip cards, and you can pick up at any time, but if you get 2 of the same suit, you bust that hand. Easy, simple, lot of fun. Very luck based, a nice take on a traditional luck of the draw with some strategy room game.

Then, we add card abilities - one card let's you discard a card from an opponent's hand, one let's you save the card turned prior from busting, one let's you peak, etc. Not too bad, adds a lot of wrinkles into the game.

Then we add traits. These typically enhance the card abilities for 1 suit. Lot's of options, lots of wrinkles, a whole lot of balancing. Then, we have tournament rules - these change up some aspect of the rules for the game - scoring, discards, etc. Yet even more variation.

So, the good is that the basics of the game are easy to learn and fun. The whole game is pretty and responsive, and there's no microtransactions in the pc version. I almost wish it were a bit straighter - just play the game, and at times found myself hacked off over tournament rules flip flopping. The traits system is also just extra baggage, but these things do keep changing up the game and require some adjustments on the part of the player, so they serve their purpose.

It's fun, it is a pretty good card game and the tension of the last few turns of a close game is quite delightful. Removing the micro transaction layer from the mobile version made this a solid title, and allows you to just play.

Thirty Flights of Loving (Steam)

This is not actually a game, it’s a very short story (~5 minutes) told in a non-linear, minimalist manner. If you’re into quirky games/experiences I think you might enjoy this one, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the price for the short runtime.

The TFoL game also comes with “Gravity Bone” (which is a free game from the same dev, also available separately, but I’d never played it before). I really enjoyed this game a lot, but it’s very short too and is more of a linear story/experience than a game (although it still has a lot more gameplay than TFoL).

Both of these games reminded me a little of Jazzpunk (although Jazzpunk is an actual game, whereas these two are just short experiences).

I'd be suprised to hear that Jazzpunk wasn't inspired by those two at all. I've always thought it pretty obvious that the devs were familiar with them. But who knows.

Cat Quest

I played this primarily across 3 sessions, and then hit the end game in one session. It is a chill out game for sure, you can largely turn off your brain to play once you have the rhythm of the (pretty simple) combat down.

It's a cutesy, silly, action-RPG-lite where everything revolves around cat puns. The humor is cute though, mostly because of the full commitment to it. It's never laugh out loud, but it is also never groan worthy. There's some other hat tips and references sprinkled through, but everything is so shallow you don't have to worry about any of it.

Nicely, there's an arrow to chase almost all the time, and the game is really just running, combat, buying upgrades, and grinding to beat the next gate. Exploration just involves running to the next set of quest markers or spawn points. Nicely though, it all works well. Everything is forgiving, death spawns you back at your last quest start/save point, the whole map takes a minute or two to run across, and all quests are just running to the marker and waiting to fight something.

Anyone looking for a serious RPG or challenge should avoid, but it is fun, it is well made, there's a few hours of content, and it knows not to overstay it's welcome.

I did not grind for the max level dungeons, I enjoyed waltzing through the story, but there's not enough meat on the combat to keep me occupied for 40-50 levels of just grinding. Still claiming the completion since I made it through the story.

I can't really see replay value other than for the grinding, and to hit those last dungeons, but maybe in another year or two I'll play through again. Easy to recommend if you just want the video game equivalent of the popcorn movie and the light hearted cat theme at all appeals.

Chex Quest trilogy

Loved it, best ever free Doom total conversion game in my experience. I played the game years ago for couple of minutes, but AVGN inspired me to take another look and I have no regrets. Too bad there are so few levels in each chapter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg0y9i5E7nY

Ion Fury

It was very good, but unfortunately the game's best part is the first couple of levels, which takes placed in an awesome cyberpunk city. The majority of what follows is one underground location after the other and I'll be honest, these quickly started to tire me out. Not exclusively however, as even in between the slew of underground tunnels, research and military facilities, there are some truly great above-ground levels. Chief of which is an awesome series of levels in a skyscraper, as you make your way to the top for one of the bossfights.

The secrets in the game are insane. When I really tried to hunt them all down I managed to find about 80% of them, whereas only keeping my eyes open while traversing the level would maybe net me 50% of them if I was lucky. Don't tire yourself down hunting down all of them. That's what I did for the first half of the game, and I eventually realized that it was sucking the fun out of the game. Instead I found I was completely content only trying to hunt down the secrets I was aware of, e.g. some room I could peer into but had to figure out how to access. That would then turn out to be one of the secrets, and it was always very gratifying when I figured it out.

Highly recommend for any fan of the build engine games.

* checks calendar...

Day of the Tentacle Remastered
Still one of the best adventures games ever made. Very funny with lovely characters, a great story, and amazing puzzles (some of the a little weird, but mostly logical). It already looked great in the old version and it got even more beautiful with the remastered graphics. And if you don't agree, no problem: You can always switch back to the old style (I did it for the GUI) with just a few clicks (or only one key if you want to change the graphics).

I was a little surprised that I still remembered most of the puzzle solutions after almost twenty years, but I still had a very good time with this classic.


Demon Hunter: Chronicles from Beyond
I liked some of the Artifex Mundi HOGs, but this one was pretty bad. Boring and nonsensical story and uninspired mini-games and Hidden Object sequences. The best thing I can say about it, is that it was short.


Baseball Riot (got it from the Community Giveaway, thank you once again!)
I didn't expect much, but I was positively surprised. It was good fun to get through the levels and try to collect all the stars. And unlike many games in that genre, it wasn't luck-based, but instead you can very well calculate your swings and the movement of the ball. Some of the levels are still a little tough, but with some tries, you'll figure out the solution.

Complete list of finished games in 2019

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3)

The 3rd game in the modern Ninja Gaiden series (I skipped the 2nd one on DS), this game builds on the graphics of the previous game, creating stunning visuals mixed in with some features that are staples of the genre and some interesting new mechanics not seen before. Gameplay wise there are a number of changes from the last game, you face many more enemies at a time, your starting hp is actually a reasonable number and they've added some new weapons that fill niches created by the new mechanics. One of the more notable differences are the way health works, when you take damage you lose hp and a tiny amount of max hp, at the end of a battle your health bar is refilled up to the new max hp amount, the Max hp can be only be brought to it's original amount through healing items or save points. Combat wise, a new change is the ability to remove limbs from enemies, this makes them slower, reduces the types of attacks they can do and opens them up to a new type of finishing move called an 'Obliteration', however injured enemies take more risks, becoming more expressive and sometimes engaging in kamikaze attacks that deal heavy damage. Level design has changed from an open world to a series of linear levels set in a variety of real world locations such as New York, Tokyo and Venice.

The game has changed a lot, which means tactics change as well. In the first game you had to play defensive, blocking about 60% of the time. In this game this tactic is immediately proven bad in the first battle, all enemies are capable of breaking your guard and can do so by simply finishing a combo, meaning you have to act aggressively. I have no negative opinions about any of the changes except one; weapons are no longer upgraded through currency, you choose to upgrade one weapon each level, and as such currency is only needed for buying healing items. I played on the highest starting difficulty and buying healing items is almost always a waste of time, with the exception of the last level. Healing items are found frequently in chests, leaving you with a surplus of currency you can't actually use.

In terms of difficulty... it's complicated. You will die less in this game because of the increased health and health regeneration, however it is easy to get overwhelmed by enemies, whereas it was rare to face more than 4 enemies at a time in the first game. The gameplay is more reminiscent of Devil May Cry, and like that game you face most boss's twice, you face one boss 4 times. The two sigma games are very different, but I think the better level design and more interesting enemies make me prefer this one to the first one. Both are still great games, and I would recommend both.

This also means I have completed my PS3 backlog, and will move on to getting through my Wii backlog next.

I thought I'd already posted this but...probably didn't since I'm still playing.

Book of Demons

I beat regular mode with the archer class, which was at least mostly easy, but slow going at times. Maybe I missed a card, but without being able to upgrade a number of the key attacks, there was a lot of chipping away.

On the whole, I've really enjoyed this game. It really nails the spirit of Diablo very well, with some loot (cards, gold, charges for various abilities) and using its card system well to create some moderately significant variation in offense/defense.

While I know it's not everyone's taste, I also really loved the paper art style.

If there is a core flaw in the game, it's that the random level generation and the way combat works sometimes collide. More than thrice (fource?) I would load onto a new level only to be trapped at the stairs by like 6-7 mobs right out of the gate, and then have to debate whether to grind it out in close quarters (which on the archer means losing a number of your ranged attacks), or utilize movement abilities to jump forward, which often meant pulling two bosses and a handful of other mobs so maybe you doubled your space but also the number of things flying at you.

Or there's a small room (most levels are contiguous, but there are some rooms that you "shift" to through doorways that are more self-contained), that has a boss and 20 monsters, and they're all going to crowd you at the entrance.

I think they could have used some more work in that part of the game.

But the music, and the dialogue of the NPCs in town is evocative (and often funny) are both strengths, and when the mobs are reasonably spread out across the level (and not all piled around the entrance) then the journeying and combat can be enjoyable as well. There is the option of "Freeplay," as well as using keys to replay bosses at higher difficulty, but I jumped right into replaying the main quest on a different class.

So far the warrior is a bit more fun, I think partly because the higher durability means taking more risks, and it's not so noticeable if the level design results in close quarters for some fights.

All in all, I'd rate it as very enjoyable (particularly on sale), if you don't mind the limited pathing and the art style.

Thirty Flights of Loving

I got told it was short. Played it, it was short. Very short.

Star Wars Republic Commando. Loved the game, but it has next to no replay value after you beat all three campaigns.

Higurashi When They Cry Ch1, Sep 4 (GOG)-This is what I think a visual novel should be above all: a really engaging story. The fact that its a mystery certainly didn't hurt either. I was underwhelmed by the couple other visual novels I played previously but this one is really good. It starts off really slow even to the point where I thought I had bought the wrong game or misunderstood what it was about. But the second half really ramps up the tension and paranoia and doesn't let up until the end. I'm really looking forward to the next chapter but I'm not sure how it will be presented. Is it a re-telling of these events from different viewpoints or something else? Regardless, I think it will be good.

Full List

Played through some more Neverwinter Nights modules recently:

The Secret of the Founder (NWN, Review)
Saleron's Gambit - Chapter One (NWN, Review)
Saleron's Gambit - Chapter Two (NWN, Review)

Also started Saleron's Gambit Chapter Three, but I'm getting a little bored by it. Not sure whether it's due to NWN overkill or if it's just the module in question (I feel like the descriptions/dialogues get more and more verbose, the area design and combat encounters get blander, and since it's low level / low magic / low xp, I don't have much incentive to put up with that).

Immortal Planet

A "souls-like" from an isometric perspective. Much smaller and less grand than Dark Souls in every conceivable way, but I guess that's to be expected. Can't say I really loved the game, but I liked it enough to 100% it (took 11 hours for normal run, which is about 3 hours longer than for most people as I understand it, 5.5 hours for the ng+ Nighmare mode).

Abzu

Beautiful, very short, and I'm really not sure what all the fuss is about. Game might as well be an interactive screensaver.