Dragon's Lair. Probably the originator of what we now refer to as Quick Time Events. I remember when this debuted at the arcade and had a genuine MOB of people around it, gawking at the animation, and also how quickly the crowds thinned out when everyone realized that its gameplay was really quite limited. I do have a lot of fondness for it if only as a showcase for Don Bluth's animation. I still crack up at some of the death animations, especially now that I can play it without burning a lot of money.

Batman (PC Engine). It's not that Batman has been in so many bad games - as licensed game characters go, Batman actually has a pretty good record. It's just that many of the games, good or bad, don't do such a great job of capturing the essence of the comics, like this one. The game is based on the 1989 movie and has you running around mazes, picking up stuff (e.g., in the first wave, you pick up bombs; in the second, you're in the art museum, cleaning the paintings the Joker defaced) while avoiding the Joker's goons. You throw batarangs to stun enemies, whom you can then knock out of the maze temporarily. So it's essentially a Pac-Man variation. I would love to know how Sunsoft concluded that this would make for a good Batman game, but the funny thing is that it IS a good game. It might not make you feel like you're really Batman or whatever, but it's sufficiently fun and very easy to fall into. The graphics are nothing amazing, but the music (some of which is recycled from the NES game) is really good.

When you start out, Batman is really slow-moving and can only throw his batarang a very short distance, but you can pick up power-ups that increase your speed, throwing distance, and the number of batarangs you can fling. Batman has a slight wind-up time that requires that you make a throw before a bad guy is right on top of you. As a general thing, the best way to succeed at the game is to try to stick to longer hallways so that you can get more room to attack because the game gets more challenging when it tries to force you into short paths with lots of turns. It has infinite continues (and a password function), but you lose your power-ups when you continue and I'm skeptical that you can beat the bosses on the final level without sufficient speed and throwing abilities.

Borderlands 3: Guns, Love and Tentacles (XB1X)

The second DLC for BL3. Serviceable expansion, but not up there with the best like Tiny Tina or Claptastic Voyage. This time it's something like a Cthulhu themed piss take during a wedding. I used my siren character that I used from the main game and the first DLC. I found out that the game currently has a level cap of 57, which I hit one area before the end. So, even though I still have a couple of side quests I'll leave them until those until the remaining DLC's arrive- as they may raise the level cap and it's way better to play when you have the promise of levels.

ShadowCaster (1993) via DOSBox.
One of Raven Softwares earliest FPS games. ShadowCaster was surprisingly deep, and overall I enjoyed playing it. ShadowCaster had over 20 unique levels to explore, and over 30 different monsters in-game to fight/avoid (more if you include the each stages boss fight). Gameplay was 60% mouse-driven, with arrow keys and spacebar acting as hardcoded action-shortcuts in-game.

Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch. A point and click adventure based on Larry Niven's Known Space stories, published by Tsunami, a short-lived Sierra spin-off. I haven't read the Ringworld books...I think I read a couple of the short stories set in the continuity a long time ago and found that they were okay but I don't remember them very well. You're not playing the main character from the book, you're controlling a guy who happens to know the main character and has an alien sidekick of the same race as the main character's sidekick. The game has a very agreeable sci-fi atmosphere, which isn't surprising considering its basis. There's a decent MT-32 compatible soundtrack.

It's a short and pretty easy game. I got stumped a couple of times because objects I was supposed to manipulate sort of blended into the background or I wasn't quite clicking the exact spot I was expected to, an issue I've noticed in some of these VGA-era adventure games. As lovely as the graphics were, they still had a bit of blurriness that could obscure important details. I did find it kind of refreshing how straightforward and character-based the solutions were. Your character is supposed to be this tough guy mercenary type, and if you try to see things from his perspective the game will reward you. If a guy with something you need is being a stubborn asshole to you, and the fate of entire planets is on the line, drawing your stun-gun and shooting him in the back is a perfectly acceptable way to resolve the situation, unlike some adventure games that punish you for choosing violent solutions. In itself it's not like it's some amazing tippy top level adventure game with ingenious puzzle design, but I've played so many that were full of "moon logic" that I don't mind the occasional one that simply makes sense and tells you its story reasonably well.

Icewind Dale. I've tried completing it many times in the past, but this is the first time it has clicked with me.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, April 1 (DS)-This is the first Zelda game I've completed, I've only played Ocarina and Wind Waker previously. The puzzles and dungeons were really enjoyable here. I liked the progression and the acquisition of new abilities and items. The boss fights I felt were also very clever whereas normally I'm pretty indifferent to bosses. The game itself felt very compact and organized which was rather welcomed coming off of M&M 6. All in all it was very good.

Full List

Wyvern Crown of Cormyr (NWN:EE)

A bit of a mixed bag.

+ When it came out, in 2006, 4 years after the release of NWN, it included a range of cool new tunes, creatures, tilesets, and clothing (e.g flowing cloaks), and introduced horse riding, as well as a new prestige class (Purple Dragon Knight). All of that was later patched into the game as goodbye present when Bioware stopped supporting the game and has since enriched many a custom module.

+ The module awards XP for roleplaying your chosen alignment and successfull use of skills.

+ It features jousting tournaments and several other mini-games that are an impressive display of the creators' creativity and skill in scripting and designing nice cutscenes, but ...
- ... I suspect it was more satisfying for the authors to come up with the ideas and see them implemented in the game than it is enjoyable for the average player, because these scripted mini games reduce player interaction to some simple choices while the rest plays out in those long unskippable cutscenes paired with elements of chance, and that's not all that much fun.

+/- The story had some typical tropes (like the beginning) but also some more interesting elements. In parts it felt a bit rushed, not properly fleshed out, the way it dealt with death of family and friends felt rather casual (oh how horrible - ok, let's move on), sometimes things were foreshadowed but the module never delivered on them, and the ending was a bit abrupt and disappointing, too.

* I usually tend to play clerics due to their versatility, but I went for ranger this time. In the middle of the module I encountered a sudden difficulty spike with the undead and especially those bloody bodaks with their death gaze. I didn't see any item in the game that offered death immunity. Healing items were very sparse among loot, hardly existent, so I learnt that you should really stock up on them in town; but I learnt the hard way, resulting in quite a bit of backtracking. And I probably should have taken the paladin companion with me instead of the rogue/mage. Mages as henchmen are pretty useless in NWN anyway, as this module reminded me again. The AI is much too bad to play them in a sensible way, regardless of the tactics menu options.

- I have completionist tendencies and usually try to do all or as much side quests as possible. But here most of the few side quests were very inappropriate for an aspiring ranger/knight, so I either rejected them or did them anyway but didn't feel good about it. The one side quest that seemed worthy was badly designed, unfortunately. It had a time limit on it without telling you how much time you had, and it could only be solved by having the right companion at the right time with you or by accepting one of those inappropriate quests mentioned above (and if you reject it, you never get a second chance to solve that other quest).

- When you are knighted, you have to promise your lord that you will behave in a knightly fashion, but afterwards you can loot containers in the castle or rob graves without any punishment or reprimand.

- Horses didn't really add much, I hardly ever rode a horse except in 2-3 spots where it was absolutely required; they were more of a nuisance most of the times (part of the party, but leave it every time you enter a building, afterwards you have to add them again; if you put the mount commandos in quickslots, they are erased again when the horse leaves the party; if the party is in the party and you are attacked, the horse might join the battle and risk getting slayed etc.). For roleplay and story reasons, the game automatically makes you sheathe your weapons and removes your helmet in town, which I also found kind of annoying.

- This might not be the module's fault but there are noticeable issues with pathfinding in some spots, particularly the cliff tilesets, and the companions don't always behave like they should either. Additionally, I noticed some bugs with doors and transitions in the EE that I thought fixed by now (nothing serious though unless you enter the stables in Castle Wyvernwater - they're empty, so you won't miss anything, but if you go in, you can't get out anymore). Druing a big battle near the end, I sometimes had the impression my allies were attacking each other, but since it was so chaotic, I never quite found out if that was a faction issue/bug or whether there was still some unseen enemy in their midst. The item I got near the end to help in the final confrontation didn't really seem to help much.

I guess that must sound pretty bad, but it wasn't the worst of the premium modules, it's actually pretty decent; certainly not a must-play though.

Game #105: Leaves 1: The Journey (Zar21) (2017) (WIN)

I took about 3 weeks off from playing games to read some books and watch movies/tv shows and decided to play this surrealistic puzzle game to ease my way back into gaming. It doesn’t really have a story other than that you have to recover some leaves for the denizens of the strange world you find yourself in which you acquire by solving a lot of different puzzles and/or finding them scattered about the game world. It’s a decent game. There’s a sequel but I think I’ll wait a while before I play it. I’m itching for something a little more action-oriented now...

Games Completed in 2020

Shadow Warrior 2013 on Steam from a mass giveaway.

A first person combat game where you rely on both your sword and a plethora of ranged weapons. Both are a must to use but you can lean more towards one or the other according to your tastes. Your boss is involved in things no human should have anything to do with and this is how you get to deal with demon and human enemies and allies. The game has an alright story. As you make your way through the game you must search for money and qi/chi crystals and aquire karma and use these three to upgrade yourself and your weapons. Also must not forget to pick up new weapons on your way.

I found the game good and easy enough for me on normal difficulty, a setting that age and failing health have pushed me down to. The upgrades are essential and without at least a handful of each kind I would never have managed to win, or rather reach the end.

One huge annoyance is since you have to search for secrets, in order to get the upgrades, you may too easily exit the area/chapter prematurely or get out of bounds and get instantly killed by the game. "Save early, save often!" I never found nearly all secrets but some well hidden ones I did find and it was satisfactory and I had enough upgrades towards the end.

Game ran perfectly fine on Linux and after a change of graphis card it also ran on the highest settings fine.

Good game. I recommend it if the prospect of a lot of searching for loot does not scare you away. Very gory.

I guess I will play the Viscera Cleanup Detail next. On GOG it is included with the main game.

Ghost of a Tale. This was quite well made. It's basically a stealth game in which you control a mouse trying to escape from a castle occupied by enemy rats. I've never read the Redwall books by Brian Jacques, but I gather that they were a big influence on this, to the point that some fans pretty much consider this an unofficial Redwall game.

You're mysteriously helped out of your cell and have to explore the castle, meeting friendly characters along the way who of course all need stuff that you'll need to fetch. This is probably the weakest part of the game, the fetch-quest design. But the castle and surrounding area are really interesting to see and explore - they pack a lot into what feels like a relatively small area, and the graphics are very nice. Being discovered by guards and chased isn't a big deal because all you have to do is run around a corner and jump into the nearest barrel or cabinet to hide and then the guards lose interest and reset. Later on you can get a uniform that lets you walk freely (although at the cost of moving more slowly). Combat is largely not a factor.

It's well-written, too. The lore is interesting and genuinely adds flavor to the game instead of forcing itself on you. The game does end on a sequel hook, though, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long for that.

Been interested in this for a while. Good to hear you enjoyed it.

I got Sorcerer King - Rivals and played it for about 8 hours, but I'm done with it.
It's a lot like Fallen Enchantress, which is the dev's previous game and not bad. This one isn't any better and I don't think is even as good. Moving on.

Ghost of a Tale was one of my favorite games I played last year. I agree the writing and lore added so much to the experience, it became something special. Crossing my fingers for a sequel!

Shadows: Awakening (PS4)

A Diablo-style rpg where you play as a demon who can take control of the souls of select individuals, using their abilities to stop some cataclysmic event. The game plays in a unique way, allowing you to take control of 3 characters at a time, each with a unique set of abilities that work better in certain situations, or alternatively applying debuffs with one character and switching to another to take advantage. The story is spread across different chapters, usually started by unlocking a new character and then being set in a location said new character feels at home, usually solving some sort of crisis affecting the area, then completing some objective relating to the main quest, all whilst doing a few side quests in your spare time. The combat is fairly simple, you have fast characters who might be able to dodge attacks, and there's slow characters who are meant to tank and deal heavy damage, you have rangers who hang back and strike from a distance and you have mages with powerful abilities but very weak basic attacks. The characters are fairly diverse in their playstyles and appearances, each with a different personality, resulting in plenty of arguments and retorts between the different party members, all of which have found themselves in the same peculiar situation. Dungeon's are fairly long, often containing a few chests locked with a puzzle you can solve and plenty of enemies to fight.

Now the criticisms, while the characters are 'fairly' diverse, there is a strong weighting towards melee fighters, of which 4 of the 'main' characters are, I was particularly annoyed to find a character referred to as a mage, was actually a melee character with a defensive move set. If someone didn't do all the sidequests, or missed something, it's actually possible to have a playthrough with only melee characters. Another annoyance was the fact you cannot remove the first character from the party of 3, as far as I can tell, there is no logical reason why this should be the case, as the first character contributes only slightly more to the story than the other main characters. Another gripe comes with the dungeon size, there is an absurd amount of backtracking in the dungeons, many dungeons are mazes where a lever at one end unlocks a door at the other end which leads to a lever which unlocks a door back on the other side of the dungeon, resulting in multiple treks across the same hall's that you only recently cleared out, with nothing new. It may be something I take for granted in RPG's now, but making the player walk BACK through the dungeon they just completed is not good dungeon design.

My final complaint are only about the endings and achievement's and can probably be ignored by most people. Upon completing the game, the first time through, you'll probably get either the good or bad ending (Based on moral choices made at certain points), you then get a bit of narration saying "Perhaps this could have ended differently?", what this is actually teasing is the secret 'True' ending. The process of getting this 'True' ending, after looking it up online, is incredibly convoluted and acquiring specific items and certain points in the game, with multiple missable objectives. I had enjoyed the game quite a bit and considered doing a 2nd playthrough to get 100% achievements, quite a few are secret, annoyingly quite a few of the secret achievements aren't related to story progression, their absurd objectives like 'Complete a dungeon without killing a certain enemy type'. Other achievements include changing to a specific character 10,000 times (The description for this achievement is 'Because Reasons') and completing the game on hard without any of your characters dying, that achievement is actually bugged in the console version and can't be unlocked, which I'm glad I know now before spending another 40 - 50 hours trying to 100% it.

Don't let the rant put you off, the game is pretty good and I really enjoyed the characters and story. I would certainly recommend it.