Lost Winds
Lost Winds 2: Winter of the Melodias

+ Cute story and graphics, you play a boy helped by a wind spirit.
+ Beautiful, calm soundtrack with slightly Chinese touch (though developed by a British studio).
+ Bite-sized metroidvania-likes with enjoyable and varied game mechanics; and even though the core mechanics are the same, the second game manages to keep things interesting by adding new ones

* They are both quite short; the first game took me a little less than 3 hours to complete, the second one about 4 hours. Personally I really liked that, the games have good entertainment value, they don't overstay their welcome and don't steal too much of your time, but if you prefer longer games that might be a disadvantage.
* No gamepad support, which I thought an oversight at first, but it made perfect sense once I learnt about the game mechanics (LostWinds was originally a Wii title, than ported to IOS and Android before PC). You control the boy with A and D on the keyboard, and the wind with mouse movements, e.g. lifting up the boy (instead of jumping), moving objects, throwing around opponents etc.
* Puzzles are easy most of the times, the few opponents are hardly a challenge; both are mainly relaxing games, there's not much of anything ever putting pressure on you and I didn't die a single time; the second game features some slightly more threatening opponents and temporary time pressure in some spots, but all in all, it's not a big deal. Unless you were actually looking to be challenged and stressed, then this might not be for you.
* Comparatively small maps but still quite a bit of backtracking, which can get somewhat tedious, especially if you want to 100% the games like I did (collectibles don't have any other use than collecting them though; you get nothing but an achievement).

- The first game frequently crashed on me at random times; I didn't lose any significant progress because of it, but it was annoying. The second game ran fine though.
- You can't set the language in-game, your OS does that for you (a pet peeve of mine). There's a workaround though, you just have to rename the language file you want with the name of the file for your OS language in the game folder.
- I felt like some mechanics were not explained or at least not clearly enough, like that you can bounce off mushrooms and how (downward mouse movement when standing on it), and even though everything worked well enough for me to be able to complete both games, I still occasionally wondered whether I hadn't fully understood the controls or whether they were slightly imprecise or not always working as they should. (In general though, they are fine and fun to use.)
- I had to look up how to beat the boss fight at the end of the first game, not because it's difficult but because the feedback I got from trying various things was too obscure. The boss fight at the end of the second game was better, although in the last stage I still overlooked one - maybe the most obvious - thing and read up on it again when everything else did not give any clear results.
- The overarching story is not complete. Each game has their own little plot about freeing someone good-natured from the influence of an evil spirit, but the evil spirit is never fully defeated. The first game ends with a "to be continued", the second game just ends without mentioning the underlying conflict again. So there would be room for more games in the series, but I don't think a LostWinds 3 is in the works. (The games were initially released in 2008 and 2009, then ported to Windows in 2016.)

TL:DR
That's a lot of text for the (potentially) negative compared to the few lines of praise, but IMO the positive outweighs it by far. I actually enjoyed both games a lot, I loved playing them and would recommend them particularly if you're looking for something short, sweet, relaxing and family friendly.

Underhero

Very nice platformer/rpg. I really liked the pixel art graphics and the story. The gameplay's all right. Ended up doing two playthroughs - my original one where I killed most enemies, and a second one where I bribed them instead. Doesn't really change the ending much or anything, but bribing is more feel good if less gameplayee. Many bribed enemies have funny quips too. After the second play through loaded the last save and figured out how to get the final chest I'd missed for 100% achievements.

CPU Invaders

A short and neat little twinstick shooter (though I had to use the mouse&keyboard because no matter what I pressed or held I couldn't shoot with my controller) which uses your desktop at time of game launch as the background for the gameplay. A completely non-interactive background though. The last few levels were a doozy, especially a final boss that even after defeating it once I'm not sure how many tries it would take me to beat it again... Well, 100%d the game just by beating it so that's nice I guess.

Dark Quest 2

I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I'd go as far as to say it is the best Hero Quest style game on PC (and mobile devices) that I've played. It's not quite the same game, but possibly even better, at least better suited as a videogame. And it comes with a mission editor that someone has already used to try and recreate the original Hero Quest campaign. As a turn-based tactics game, of course it's somewhat simple and limited, but so is Hero Quest. You shouldn't go in expecting it to be X-COM or something, it's more on the level of Dwarf Quest or Tomb of Annihilation, but out of these three the most interesting, IMO.

The graphical presentation is quite nice and the soundtrack is good as well, though it's just 3-4 different tracks repeating, which can become a bit repetitive. Characters, like in HQ, have fixed stats and no levels, but there is a bit of an RPG-lite upgrade system in that you can find a small number of blue magic pots in each mission that each stands for one point that you can use to learn and improve various active and passive spell-like abilities. And you can use the money you find to have the smith craft items for you that are shared between the whole party (each character can equip two of them). IIRC, you start out with one character and then unlock the others until you have access to a pool of six. The actual party size depends on the mission but is 3-4 in most cases. All characters have different abilities and uses and different party combinations can make the missions play out differently. I did find some characters more useful than others - the Knight being my personal favorite, the Dwarf the least interesting one in the end, although at the start the Mage seemed the weakest, but he becomes more useful when his powers grow, as you'd expect. Barbarian, Archer and Dark Monk I liked well enough.

The game allows three different profiles at any time, which autosave your progress on quitting. There is no manual saving and no saving at all during missions, but contrary to other games in this one I was fine with it. Missions usually only take 10-20 minutes to play through and here the danger of failing them adds to the excitement, while frustration over having to replay one is still manageable. It doesn't really happen that much either. You can still finish them with only one character surviving and fallen heroes can be resurrected in the town hub on Normal difficulty (on Hardcore they are gone). Also, if you abandon a mission, you still get to keep the pots you found and half of the gold, although that only applies to the official campaign. On custom maps, even though you get the same warning message, for some reason you actually lose everything if you abort them, including the pots.

The game has some minor issues; every criticism I've read is true to some extent, I just didn't think them bad enough to ruin the fun for me. The most obvious one is that due to the fixed perspective, it can be hard or even impossible to target a square that's directly behind a character or opponent and concealed by their sprite. This sounds very problematic for a grid-based tactics game, but I didn't run into many situations where it really mattered. Most of the times it just made leaving a room a bit more roundabout, as I first had to move some character out of the way in order to click on the exit tile. The way that traps are handled is a bit odd, too, but you can adapt to it and accept it as a rule of the game. The Dwarf and the Archer have the ability to spot traps, but if you've already set a destination for them that's behind the hidden trap, they won't stop if they spot one but walk right into it. For that reason you have to take little steps when exploring a room, which can be a bit bothersome, but is not totally illogic either. Only the Dwarf can actually disarm traps though, and if you spot a trap in your way but have no way of disarming it, you have to consciously step into it, take damage and end your turn. (Also not necessarily illogical, just annoying.)

Some mechanics also seem a bit open to being exploited, like the price for raising dead heroes being 20% of your gold, which always made me spend the major part of it first, so that the cost ended up to be minimal. On the other hand, that way you can't get stuck by not being able to raise dead characters anymore. You can still get in somewhat tight spots though if you don't have enough gold to heal them (50gp per head) or buy potions. In that case you have to risk playing an easier mission at a disadvantage. You can replay every mission and collect the same gold and pots again, but in the official campaign, the difficulty of a mission increases with every replay. Custom maps are exempt from that though, so those are safer to play if you need to nurse your heroes back to health or you want to grind a little, which might also feel a bit like cheating. Lastly, the dark monk has one instakill ability that bosses in the official campaign are immune to, but that often works on bosses in custom missions (not sure whether due to an oversight of the map creators or whether the editor lacks an option to make opponents immune). And speaking of exploitation, some might find it rather inappropriate or tone deaf that the town hub includes a brothel that gives you benefits for the next mission if you visit it, but I guess that's a matter of taste.

What bothered me personally more than all of the above is that a mission can end automatically before you got the chance to fully explore the level and pick up all the treasure and it's not always clear which condition will cause the quest to be completed. I'd have liked an option to stay in the dungeon even after a mission is completed and then leave of my own accord. And I also regretted that if you've already moved some characters into the exit and then spot or remember something that's worth further examination, you can neither call the quitters back, nor let the remaining characters move on to other rooms on their own.

Anyway, all in all I had a lot of fun with this simple but surprisingly varied game; I played through the official campaign (some missions more than once), as well as through some custom maps, including the adaptation of the old Hero Quest campaign, and I'm shocked to see that I spent about 16 hours on it all without really noticing how time flew. I might still play a few custom maps until I've maxed out every last ability, but officially I consider the game completed now.

The Witcher. I also started playing skyrim vr in January 2019 but finished it only in January 2020. I also can say that virtual reality edition of this game provides even more new stuff. So after finishing that game I've read a lot about machine learning solutions and tried to make my own some kind of vr game. I hope I will succeed till the end of 2020.

Rise of the Dragon - 2/5

The game goes for a cyberpunk graphic novel aesthetic - for the most part, it nails it (I'd even say there are moments of art direction brilliance). Sadly, heavy compression artifacts really put a damper on the presentation. There are also some art assets that feel out of place - several digitised photographs/videos, and - what can only be described as - 'programmer art'.

The gameplay toys with some interesting ideas, such as a drag-and-drop inventory system and an in-game clock. But the real thing that needs to be talked about is the atrocious action sequences. There's only a couple of them, and it's possible to skip them (after attempting them a few times), but, regardless, they are nothing short of atrocious.

Ultimately, this is one of those games that is more ambitious than good. I'm probably never going to check out Dynamix's follow-up adventure game - Heart of China.

Just beat God of War on PS4 (the 2018 game, that is). Simply put: it's one of the best games ever made and it deserves all the praise it got.

Gameplay-wise it's not groundbreaking but expertly executed. It's really just a metroidvania with soulslike combat. Luckily the game does not fall into the trap of becoming a poor man's RPG - it's perfectly satisfied with its role as an action adventure with some progression in the form of unlockable skills and some loot. Sure, there's some equipping and numbers but ultimately it's all about beating the challenges by mastering the combat and exploring the gorgeous world - and said world is not a huge bland square with some points of interest but a complex web of meaningful paths and places. There's some basic puzzles but the main aspect of the gameplay is of course the combat. Not sure what I can say about that one other than that it's great. It's fairly basic but done almost perfectly. It's at times challenging but, at least on the "balanced" difficulty that I played on, always fair and you're always in control. Different enemy types that require somewhat different strategies as well as unlockable / collectable abilities keep the game fresh. The combat may not be groundbreaking but it was just done right.

Ultimately the main feature of the game is not its gameplay, though, but its narrative. The long journey that Kratos and his son Atreus embark on is simply one of the most engaging and mature experiences I've had as a gamer and their relationship is simply human. The dialogue is expertly written and very nuanced, the tiniest details in how Kratos and Atreus respond to each other are meaningful, and I simply cared about their relationship and how it developed. I did not expect such an emotional experience from a game that is superficially about tearing apart monsters. The same amount of love and care went into the tiny cast of supporting characters, all of whom are fleshed out and likeable. If there's a single complaint I have here it's the very humble cast of villains. Luckily the game appears to serve as a buildup for something much grander in this regard.

And of course, as should be obvious to anyone who has seen any footage or is familiar with the series, it's one of the most gorgeous games made thus far and offers quite a few breathtaking sights. Also in this regard the game is far more nuanced than earlier entries in the series but that only makes it more immersive. And in terms of audio, whether it's the sound, music or voice acting, it's definitely one of the best games out there. It may lack catchy tunes but the entire audio provides a perfect ambience for the action (or, just as often, the lack of action).

I could easily write several pages about all the things that blew me away about the game but I'm gonna leave it at that... and probably keep exploring the world until every corner has been looted and every challenge overcome.

I played Heart of China really long time ago (although I didn't finish it). I don't think it was that great but it wasn't a bad game either. Just a normal point and click adventure game from the early 90ies with the usual limitations of the time (although being a Dynamix game it was visually advanced for the year it was released).

Just finished the original The Witcher. Second time playing it, after its original release date. It holds up relatively well. The issues I had with it were all there when it came out, namely the click-rhyming combat and the sometimes rough English translation. One thing that bothered me this time that I didn't remember from last time were the weird ways the "open" levels were constructed, with large areas blocked off into tunnels or sections, which made traversal more annoying than it should be. For example to get from the East swamp to the West, you might have to go way South to get around a pointless block of trees.

The game also arguably goes on too long for the variety it offers. Nothing wrong with a 50 hour RPG if you've got the variety and world to sustain it, but The Witcher's world is actually relatively small (and two chapters share "wilderness" areas) and the combat is super similar and repetitive all game. I was definitely ready for it to end way sooner than it did. Still... overall still an enjoyable experience, and with a personality all its own that made 2 and 3 bigger hits.

I would've liked the maze-like swamp area more if the time spent there was a bit shorter. But at least there weren't any (as far as I remember) invisible barriers. I'm still playing Mass Effect (3) and it's full of invisible barriers. Great games otherwise... but invisible barriers always feel a bit like lazy level design.

Um, your account lists 0 games.

Unless you own it somewhere else?
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My own entry:

Entry 6: Haunted Legends 9-Faulty Creatures Collector's Edition(Win10, 64 Bit)

(Full/Main List in Post 21 of this thread)
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You play another agent/officer chasing down a suspect that turns out to be the main one from the prior games(or most of them anyways), and the game has a pseudo-Frankenstein theme. It is decent enough, and improves a few things while cutting back on others(compared to prior games in the series).

Pros

Nice new questioning/notebook feature(the notebook is a red button tab on he right side of the screen), which one can use(with found items) to question people(although this is done less and less as the game progresses and gets closer to concluding).

(Tip: With the notebook, always try the least likely/less important items/questions first to make sure you can ask/try them all)

They made zoomed in areas scrollable with the mouse(better than how it worked in the prior game).

The areas are very nice to look at.

Cons/nitpicks

The game(and especially the additional extra mission after playing the main game) is a bit short compared to prior games.....imo this is likely due to them trying to ramp out more of these games as time went on.

The collectibles this time are decent enough, but some have the same "flavor text", just with new items(maybe due to production mistakes, but more likely done to save time).

Also the collectible are easier to get this game, but are just flowers(different types, though)...a bit more ho hum to me compared to previous fare(some previous games had pseudo mini-games involving the extras).

Asides

The extra mission(unlocked after the main game) is a PREQUEL to the game itself....so it might be confusing a bit to the player when starting it(as usually the extra missions are set AFTER the games they come with).

Overall I give it a 6.5/10, and recommend it to fans of the series, and even others who like such(though if one isn't a fan i'd recommend waiting for a half off sal on Bigfish/etc)....now onto the next one.

(Full/main game list in post 21)

Yeah, I think it was budget. Every chapter is kind of the same, a town area and a wilderness area, but chapters 2 and 3 both share the swamp as the wilderness area. I think they just used it twice for development reasons, and it sticks out as a poor area of the game as a result.

My Brother Rabbit (2018) (Linux)

I really liked it. It's hidden object game with some puzzles, great to play with kids. Gameplay is very similar to The Tiny Bang Story, which I also recommend, if you like the genre.

Leisure Suit Larry 1 - In the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987) (Linux/ScummVM)

And this one I've finished when kids go to sleep ;) The only part I've ever played is Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! – and I like it. I've never played classic series before. It's time to catch up. The game is surprisingly funny. OK, some jokes are quite primitive, some ideas were evidently created by complexed nerds, but there are still some hilarious moments, like answering the phone after phone survey. What I didn't like is grinding and cheating to make money in casino and riding a taxi, which consumes most of time in the game.

Oh, by the way – I've played classic '87 version. I missed somehow that there is VGA remake available here (not Reloaded, but '91 VGA edition added with Leisure Suit Larry pack).

List of all games completed in 2020.

I decided to finish the remaining Frictional Games' games from my backlog.

Penumbra: Requiem, Amnesia: Justine and SOMA are done now.
I say SOMA is the best ever game for suicide attempt: it's depressing as hell, ending is even more depressing (after credits especially) and saving a few living humans is almost heartbreaking. I would rather play the initial concept of SOMA game.

What was the initial concept of the game?

Ascension to the Throne

Grabbed it when it was free on Indiegala and finished it this evening. Actually last night had a first go, thinking it wouldn't really be the end there and finding that it actually was, as it's a series of 4 chained battles, location changing (no explanation why given in the game itself) after first. Died in the last battle then, and instead of reloading the autosave before it I just reloaded the proper save from before all four today and won. But then wanted to get the best character and army too, so reloaded again, went all around Airath to open chests and use altars, since I had delayed (rewards scale with level, so get any as late as you can), then back to Oganthar and Annaroth to get myself a kickass army, then back there for another run just out of curiosity. Complete joke, this last run, one round to wipe the first two enemy armies, they didn't even get to attack, messed up a bit in 3rd and had to delay a bit to resurrect some units I lost, then killed the boss before it got a move in final battle and then could easily deal with the other units and keep a last one around to resurrect the few I lost, just to have no losses.

There will be a review, and I have a wall of text of notes, so not dumping that here now, will try to write some more clearly... Half of it is about bugs though, and there are quite a few. None game breaking if you're a bit careful (clicking through dialogs quickly can have odd effects for one, stuff that should happen at the end of the dialog may not, and that may break stuff, so if you see stuff being listed on screen, such as rewards, unit changes or what not, wait for the text to go away), but there were plenty of crashes at the start of battles, mainly chained battles and even more so if you level between them, and in one particular case I needed to reload the autosave made before the last battle in a series, kept trying and it kept crashing at the start of it otherwise. Nice that it makes those autosaves before each battle though.
About the game itself, starts hard, have to search for fights you can survive and figure out how, but it gets much easier after a bit, and after you can get a conqueror, who has the scapegoat spell way before you can learn it yourself, things start to be a joke. Only exception are very fast enemies, even more so ranged ones, or the few battles on very small areas, where you can't stay out of range. The AI can be tricked though, and quite easily, as otherwise there would be a few battles that'd be nearly unwinnable (small arenas and very fast toughies, or very fast units with long range in front row), seeing that when the hero dies, it's game over. But yeah, even a single conqueror will turn the tide. Conqueror in top-front slot, any speed ring, armor spell and high spell power on hero = only offensive spellcasters can do any damage anymore. There will be plenty of them later on though, but there are protection spells (albeit for each element, not generic) and ways around. You WILL need to trick the AI on those sometimes though, because if they'll gang up on hero, you're toast. But by the time you'll need to deal with many of them, tricking them will be second nature.
Otherwise, kinda liked how units are individual, not stacks, each has its position and it's a matter of how many can hit enemies in case of melee ones. A problem there is that you can't choose positioning or spread of attacks, at most a single destination or attack hex, other positions or attacks being determined automatically (though you can see how attacks will spread before clicking - not positioning though). And also about this, felt odd that armor applies to total, not to each attack.
Oganthar is quite large and got more attention, Annaroth seems quite rushed, Airath even more so. But feels like you can't really explore, full of invisible walls, no jumping whatsoever and so on. And there seem to be things included for Valkyrie, like rings or one altar you can't use since they're for an archer and you're not (Eneya does get one ring you find in a chest, but that's the only thing). And speaking of things, no shop interface, no way to sell things (bar one armor), and each shop only has one or two things, which you check out in a regular dialog menu, getting a description of the effects.
Still, not bad overall. Shows a lack of resources, but they tried to do something there, and it is quite a power trip once you advance a bit and nearly everything becomes easy. But plenty of battles remain nice enough, and there are plenty of varied units.